THE 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION 

OF  JUNIORS 

J.CnRTRUDE  BUTTON 


i''S'^^ 


BV  2090 

.H9  1917 

Hutton, 

Jean 

Gertrude, 

1871- 

The  missionary  education  of 

juniors 

Ui 


THE  MISSIONARY 

EDUCATION  OF 

JUNIORS 

A  Handbook  for  Leaders 


BY  ,y 

J.  GERTRUDE  HUTTON 


NEW  YORK 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  MOVEMENT 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  CANADA 

1917 


COPYRIGHT,  191 7,  BY 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION    MOVEMENT 

OF  THE    UNITED   STATES   AND  CANADA 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface iv 

Chapter        I.    The  Goal 1 

Chapter       II.    Knowing  One's  Pupils. 21 

Chapter     III.    Missionary    Education 

Through  Activity 39 

Chapter      IV.     Training  in  Giving 52 

Chapter       V.     Missionary    Education 

Through  Play 67 

Chapter      VI.     The  Materials  of  Mission- 
ary Education 80 

Chapter    VII.    The  Materials  of  Mission- 
ary Education  {Concluded)  91 

Chapter  VIII.    Telling  Missionary  Stories  108 

Chapter     IX.    Junior  Missionary  Reading  116 

Reading  Books  on   World  Friendship   for 

Junior  Boys  and  Girls 127 

Bibliography 133 

Appendix 138 


111 


PREFACE 

This  manual  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  hand- 
books on  graded  missionary  education  in  the 
church  school  and  home  that  are  now  in  process 
of  preparation. 

In  a  day  when  we  consider  missionary  service 
not  as  an  important  phase  of  Christian  living,  but 
as  the  heart  of  the  Christian  message  and  a  neces- 
sary, normal  expression  of  Christian  life,  it  is 
apparent  that  the  subject  of  missionary  educa- 
tion for  our  growing  youth  is  most  important. 
Yet  we  can  no  longer  consider  missionary  teach- 
ing as  a  single  phase  of  religious  instruction; 
rather,  it  is  the  essence  of  religious  education. 
It  furnishes  significance  and  vitalizing  energy 
to  every  phase  of  Christian  living. 

The  content  of  this  book  is  the  outgrowth  of 
the  author's  many  years  of  experience  in  the  field 
of  religious  education  and  presents  principles 
and  methods  tested  by  use.  It  should  be  need- 
less to  add  that  the  principles  presented  express 
the  developing  rather  than  the  finished  thought 
of  the  author. 


iv 


CHAPTER    I 

THE    GOAL 

.  The  Goal  of  Education.  A  man  who  is  about  to 
begin  a  journey  must  first  decide  upon  his 
destination;  how  else  can  he  plan  his  route? 
Surely  a  teacher  who  assumes  the  responsibility 
of  directing,  or  educating,  the  lives  of  boys  and 
girls  should  display  equal  foresight  and  start 
his  work  by  clearly  defining  the  goal.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  leaders  in  education  have  too  long 
been  content  simply  to  go  somewhere — with  only 
a  vague  idea  as  to  the  end  of  the  journey  and  a 
cheerful  but  indistinct  hope  that  the  general 
direction  is  forward.  The  vigorous  questioning 
to  which  the  product  of  modern  secular  educa- 
tion is  being  subjected  reveals  unmistakably  an 
ambiguity  of  purpose.  Men  or  mechanics,  soul 
or  substance — which  should  be  the  result  of  edu- 
cation? The  question  remains  unsettled,  and  as 
long  as  the  answer  is  in  doubt,  the  work  of  teach- 
ing must  lack  precision  and  unity. 

Indefinite  Aim  of  Religious  Educators.  Religious 
education  has  been  marked  by  a  similar  indefi- 
niteness.    What  does  it  mean?    What  is  its  aim? 

1 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

What  part  in  the  w  hole  scheme  should  mission- 
ary education  have?  These  are  questions  de- 
manding practical  answers  from  every  religious 
educator  who  would  intelligently  carry  forward 
his  work. 

The  first  Sunday-schools — the  "ragged  schools'' 
of  Robert  Raikes — were  not  religious  at  all,  but 
were  philanthropic  elementary  schools.  This  was 
never  true  of  the  Sunday-school  in  America, 
which  has  always  been  used  for  religious  instruc- 
tion and  has  always  been  under  the  control  of  the 
church.  The  subject  matter,  for  the  most  part, 
has  been  taken  from  the  Bible,  and  the  ideal  has 
been  a  double  one — Biblical  instruction  and  con- 
version. Toward  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury the  question,  "Is  the  Sunday-school  doing 
its  work  efficiently?''  was  more  and  more  insist- 
ently asked.  The  attempt  to  answer  it  brought 
out  another  question:  "What  is  the  work  of  the 
Sunday-school?"  As  a  result,  religious  educa- 
tion, like  secular  education,  is  now  in  the  process 
of  determining  its  own  objective. 

Inadequacy  of  Certain  Aims.  Everywhere,  per- 
haps in  every  school  in  the  church,  can  be  found 
earnest,  devoted  teachers,  the  effectiveness  of 
whose  work  would  be  greatly  increased  by  a 
sharp  formulation  of  the  end  which  they  are 
supposed  to  be  attaining.    How  hazy  and  inade- 

2 


THE  GOAL 

quate  are  the  objective  points  of  most  church 
school  teachers  is  shown  by  the  answers  received 
to  a  simple  question  which  I  have  put  to  scores 
of  workers:  "What  is  the  aim  of  your  Sunday- 
school?"  Many  reply:  "To  interest  and  hold 
our  pupils ;  to  bring  the  pupils  into  church  mem- 
bership; to  acquaint  the  pupils  with  the  Bible; 
to  give  the  pupils  Christian  training."  A  few 
say  rather  indefinitely,  "To  develop  the  pupil." 
It  is  the  exceptional  school  that  sets  for  its  goal 
the  development  of  Christian  character. 

All  of  the  first  four  points  named  in  these  an- 
swers must  be  included  m  an  adequate  scheme 
of  religious  education,  but  taken  singly  or  to- 
gether, they  do  not  form  an  inspiring  ideal.  They 
are  but  methods,  the  means  by  which  the  great 
end  is  gained;  each  must  receive  due  emphasis 
and  attention,  but  religious  education  strives  for 
something  beyond  the  sum  of  them  all. 

The  True  Goal  of  Keligious  Education.  To  begin 
with  the  first  point,  a  church  school  does,  indeed, 
do  well  in  seeking  to  attract  and  hold  its  young 
people ;  but  leaders  must  realize  fully  the  relation 
of  the  school  to  its  pupils  and  direct  their  work 
in  full  understanding  of  the  pupiPs  needs.  Other- 
wise the  holding  power  will  be  neither  very 
permanent  nor  very  valuable.  If  church  schools 
would  turn  half  the  energy  now  expended  in  try- 

3 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

ing  to  interest  and  please  young  people  to  finding 
out  their  actual  needs  and  meeting  them  intelli- 
gently, the  question  of  holding  pupils  would  settle 
itself,  and  the  schools  would  be  crowded  to  their 
utmost  capacity.  Fine  equipment  and  trained 
teachers ;  programs  of  activity ;  athletics ;  oppor- 
tunities for  social  life;  all  these  are  desirable. 
They  should,  however,  be  chosen  not  as  means  of 
engaging  tlie  more  or  less  temporary  interest  of 
young  people,  but  because  of  their  effectiveness 
in  attaining  the  great  objective  of  religious  edu- 
cation. This  objective  must  be  nothing  less  than 
the  development  of  Christian  character,  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  all  that  the  words  imply. 

A  Test  of  Method.  To  conceive  this  aim  clearly 
is  to  view  the  entire  task  of  religious  education 
in  its  right  perspective ;  it  means  giving  each  part 
its  true  value  in  relation  to  the  whole.  Equip- 
ment, curriculum,  programs  of  training  and 
activity — all  means  for  fuller  expression  of  life, 
all  material  used  in  religious  education — will 
be  tested  by  their  value  in  building  Christian 
character;  they  will  be  chosen  only  because  they 
are  the  most  effective  means  of  helping  the  child 
to  realize  himself  as  a  force  in  the  world,  and 
because  they  supply  what  he  needs  for  his  fullest 
and  most  symmetrical  development. 

Instruction  and  Christian  Character.     A  teacher 

4 


THE  GOAL 

who  holds  character  development  as  the  end  of 
religious  education  at  once  gives  knowledge  and 
instruction  the  proper  emphasis.  Though  these 
may  not  be  of  chief  importance,  they  still  have  a 
prominent  place,  for  the  ideal  Christian  is  in- 
telligent, and  no  school  is  doing  its  work  well 
unless  it  is  constantly  sending  out  pupils  well 
equipped  with  knowledge — knowledge  of  the 
Bible,  of  Christian  principles,  of  the  history  of  • 
the  Christian  church  and  of  what  it  has  accom- 
plished, as  well  as  of  the  issues  it  faces.  But 
when  the  end  of  instruction  is  to  build  charac- 
ter, not  simply  to  impart  knowledge,  the  whole 
spirit  of  the  task  is  lifted  from  the  dull  and  the 
commonplace  to  the  ideal.  Teaching  facts  may 
be,  and  often  is,  sheer  drudgery ;  helping  to  build 
life  is  inspiring  and  creative.  This  by  no  means 
implies  that  knowledge  is  unimportant;  but  it 
does  mean  that  facts  will  not  be  taught  for  their 
own  sake,  but  because  of  their  value  in  shaping 
the  life  of  the  pupil.  Such  a  view  of  the  place 
of  knowledge  in  education  not  only  insures  its 
receiving  exactly  the  right  emphasis  but  helps  to 
determine  what  kind  of  knowledge  is  necessary. 
Training  and  Christian  Character.  The  work  of 
training  pupils  in  the  Christian  life  likewise  re- 
ceives a  new  impetus  when  the  ultimate  aim  is 
clearly  conceived,  for  training  goes  further  than 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

instruction.  To  be  informed  concerning  the  relig- 
ious life  is  not  enough;  that  alone  is  to  be  like 
a  workman  who  has  studied  the  theory  of  wood- 
carving  without  handling  the  actual  wood  or 
tools.  The  child,  too,  must  gain  control  of  the 
tools  of  the  religious  life;  he  must  be  trained  in 
its  methods  and  work;  he  must  learn  to  adjust 
himself  to  his  fellows  and  to  the  world  around 
him  according  to  Christian  principles;  he  must 
form  the  habit  of  working  with  others  for  the 
spread  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth ;  he  must 
form  habits  of  public  and  private  devotion ;  in  a 
word,  he  must  be  trained  for  Christian  living  by- 
long  and  careful  instruction  and  practise.  Since 
the  results  of  such  training  are  slow  in  appear- 
ing, this  phase  of  the  work  often  seems  most  hope- 
less and  discouraging,  but  a  teacher  with  under- 
standing and  insight  remembers  that  character 
grows  unseen  and  is  willing  to  wait  for  its  timely 
unfolding. 

Service  and  Christian  Character.  Christian  charac- 
ter means  more  than  intelligence,  no  matter  how 
broad  that  may  be ;  it  means  more  than  training, 
no  matter  how  much  skill  that  may  have  given. 
The  man  who  knows  how  to  design  useful  and 
substantial  houses  and  who  can  skilfully  wield 
the  tools  to  erect  those  houses  is  still  of  small 
benefit  to  the  world,  if  he  does  not  put  his  gifts 

6 


THE  GOAL 

to  the  service  of  his  fellow  men.  No  school  should 
be  satisfied  to  send  out  its  pupils  equipped  with 
knowledge  and  skill;  these  are  useless,  if  they 
are  not  turned  to  account.  The  older  education, 
being  largely  individualistic  in  its  emphasis, 
looked  to  salvation  from  death  to  come,  to  a  life 
in  the  future.  We  of  to-day  would  save  from 
sin  not  only  for  the  sake  of  a  future  life,  but  for 
the  sake  of  what  a  life  of  service  here  may  mean 
to  others.  The  church  is  seeking  to  make  its 
pupils  good;  it  is  seeking  even  more  zealously 
to  make  them  good  for  something.  The  pupil 
who  comes  into  church  membership  has  not 
reached  the  final  goal,  though  he  has  taken  a 
forward  step ;  his  new  decision,  his  new  position 
as  a  fully  acknowledged  citizen  of  the  Kingdom, 
places  upon  him  new  responsibilities,  and  his 
most  marked  reaction  to  them  should  be  an  in- 
creased activity,  an  increased  sense  of  moral  con- 
cern and  personal  responsibility  for  the  advance- 
ment of  Christian  principles.  Teaching  children 
the  joy  of  working  with  God  in  the  task  of  mak- 
ing over  the  world  is  a  part  of  the  mission  of  the 
church  school.  Surely  the  followers  of  that  Mas- 
ter who  claimed  divine  sonship  because  "my 
Father  worketh  even  until  now,  and  I  work,'' 
must  manifest  their  loyalty  to  him  through  their 
deeds. 

7 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

Creative  Ideals  and  Christian  Character.  Even  this 
is  not  enough.  Knowledge  alone  is  cold;  skill 
may  be  merely  mechanical ;  activity  may  entirely 
fail  to  touch  the  springs  of  life.  If  it  is  to  have 
any  real  and  permanent  worth,  activity  must  be 
kindled  by  great,  glowihg,  creative  ideals  that 
will  give  energy  and  spirit  to  the  present  and 
make  the  future  real.  Religious  education  has 
no  more  important  work  than  giving  to  each 
generation  Christian  ideals  of  love  and  service 
and  world  brotherhood  as  sons  of  a  common 
Father — ideals  that  will  determine  the  purpose 
of  a  citizen  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  serve  as 
standards  by  which  he  may  measure  conduct,  and 
inspire  him  to  progress.  Such  ideals,  personally 
felt,  will  develop  that  personal  initiative  and 
moral  responsibility  which  Christians  must  pos- 
sess, if  they  are  to  cooperate  in  establishing  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

The  Aim  Defined.  To  sum  up,  religious  educa- 
tion should  seek  to  make  its  pupils  trained,  in- 
telligent Christians,  who,  inspired  by  great 
ideals,  will  actively  engage  in  the  work  of  God's 
kingdom.  To  state  it  more  briefly,  the  one  aim 
of  religious  education  should  be  the  development 
of  Christian  character.  Such  an  aim  includes  all 
the  former  points,  retaining  all  their  value  with- 
out overemphasis  of  any;  it  determines  the 
• 

8 


THE  GOAL 

material  to  be  chosen  and  the  methods  to  be 
employed;  it  gives  definiteness  and  purpose  to 
the  teachings  of  each  lesson;  and  it  inspires  the 
teacher  with  courage  and  faith  and  patience. 

Character  a  Development.  Character  building,  it 
must  be  remembered,  is  neither  a  swift  nor  a 
simple  process.  Christian  character  is  not  static ; 
it  is  not  an  accretion  or  a  combination  of  quali- 
ties— honesty  added  here,  justice  there,  obedi- 
ence at  some  other  point.  It  is  a  growth,  a  de- 
velopment, with  constantly  changing  needs,  and 
only  that  teaching  which  is  fully  cognizant  of 
and  intelligently  meets  these  needs  is  worthy  to 
be  called  teaching. 

Temple  Building  and  Character  Building.  The 
architect  dreams  a  temple  and  plans  the  material 
to  make  the  structure  a  reality;  there  must  be 
so  much  of  each  sort — stone,  steel,  concrete,  oak, 
glass,  and  carving  for  wall,  with  possibly  jewels 
and  hangings  and  tapestries  for  embellishment. 
Then,  in  sure  knowledge  of  what  is  needed  in 
each  part  of  the  structure,  he  builds  with  steady 
hand,  placing  stone  and  concrete  for  a  stable 
foundation,  tempered  steel  and  sturdy  oak  for 
support,  rich  stained  glass  where  the  gracious 
light  of  day  must  fall,  carvings  and  hangings 
where  their  beauty  shall  delight  the  eye. 

The  teacher,  too,  is  a  dreamer  of  dreams ;  with 

9 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

his  heart  turned  to  the  far-off  end,  he  realizes 
that  life's  edifice  is  built  out  of  life's  every-day 
experiences ;  he  remembers  that  "our  to-days  and 
yesterdays  are  the  blocks  with  which  we  build." 
He  knows,  too,  that  every  day,  every  hour,  almost 
every  moment,  the  child  faces  a  new  situation. 
Though  a  child's  problems  may  seem  very  in- 
significant to  the  adult  of  long  experience  and 
seasoned  judgment,  they  are  not  trivial  to  the 
child;  they  are  real  and  vital,  and  he  must  meet 
them.  The  tremendous  importance  of  his  adjust- 
ments and  reactions  lies  in  the  fact  that  they  are 
built  into  the  very  fiber  of  his  being;  for  good 
or  for  ill,  they  have  become  a  part  of  his  struc- 
ture of  life.  The  teacher  who  recognizes  this  fact 
does  not  waste  any  time  in  telling  a  boy  or  a  girl 
how  to  be  good  in  some  far-off  future,  but  bends 
all  his  energies  to  the  task  of  helping  his  pupils 
meet  their  present  difflculties,  feeling  well  as- 
sured that  if  these  are  rightly  treated  to-day, 
"ascending  and  secure,  shall  to-morrow  find  its 
place." 

Meeting  the  Child's  Problems.  How  often  the 
teaching  of  the  past  failed  at  this  point,  scores 
of  people  can  show  from  personal  experience. 
There  was  plenty  of  instruction  as  to  future 
Christian  life,  but  there  was  little  teaching  that 
would  help  in  overcoming  the  practical  difficul- 

10 


THE  GOAL 

ties  of  a  child's  every-day  life.  This  same  weak- 
ness marks  much  of  our  work  yet.  Some  girls 
were  confiding  their  troubles  to  a  beloved  older 
friend  recently  and  spoke  of  the  Sunday-school 
teachers.  "If  they  would  only  talk  to  us  about 
something  in  the  United  States!"  said  one  girl 
wistfully,  her  single  phrase  showing  the  complete 
isolation  of  the  teaching  from  the  life  she  was 
actually  living. 

"What's  the  death  of  Moses  got  to  do  with 
me?"  demanded  a  lively  twelve-year-old  boy  in 
response  to  his  teacher's  plea  for  attention.  The 
teacher,  looking  at  the  restless,  alert  boy,  could 
only  wonder  at  his  own  lack  of  insight  in  sup- 
posing for  an  instant  that  the  death  of  an  aged 
saint  hundreds  of  years  ago  could  interest  any 
lad  whose  life  was  all  before  him,  with  its  press- 
ing questions  and  its  crowding  interests. 

Lessons  and  Conduct.  Many  a  teacher  has  read 
the  astonishment  on  the  faces  of  his  pupils  when 
he  suggested  that  the  lessons  learned  in  Sunday- 
school  should  be  practised  on  the  playground — 
or  perhaps  the  child  has  promptly  assented  to  the 
idea,  only  to  repudiate  it  in  conduct  before  he 
has  left  the  room,  not  because  he  has  forgotten 
or  because  he  is  insincere,  but  because  the  teach- 
ing made  no  vital  connection  between  learning 
and  living.    Yet  such  a  connection  must  be  estab- 

11 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

lished  before  the  best  character  development  can 
result ;  it  will  be  established  when  teachers  recog- 
nize the  real,  present  problems  of  individual 
pupils  and  offer  practical  solutions  for  them. 

Learning  Through  Doing.  After  all,  one  of  the 
most  important  principles  a  teacher  can  learn  is 
that  a  child  is  best  taught  through  experience. 
Learning  comes  from  doing.  No  mother  would 
expect  her  daughter  to  learn  to  sew  or  play  the 
piano  merely  through  being  told  how  to  do  so 
or  through  watching  others.  No  father  would 
expect  his  son  to  learn  to  run  a  machine  or  to 
conduct  a  business  successfully,  if  he  never  be- 
came more  than  an  onlooker  or  a  diligent  stu- 
dent of  methods ;  the  boy  must  spend  days,  weeks, 
even  years  practising,  experimenting,  making 
mistakes,  gaining  experience  and  skill. 

Character  Through  Experience.  The  same  princi- 
ple holds  good  in  religious  education;  the  child 
learns  to  be  a  Christian  by  being  one.  *This  does 
not  mean  that  a  child  is  a  Christian  to  the  same 
degree  that  his  father  or  mother  is  a  Christian, 
any  more  than  he  is  a  citizen  of  the  state  in  the 
same  manner  and  degree  as  are  they;  it  does 
mean  that  he  knows  himself  a  member  of  the 
Father's  great  family,  just  as  he  knows  himself 
a  member  of  the  home  group,  and  that,  to  the  full 
measure  of  his  ability  and  in  accordance  with 

12 


THE  GOAL 

his  development,  he  fills  his  place  in  one  as  in 
the  other.  It  means  that  he  constantly  tries  to 
make  his  adjustments  to  life  according  to  the 
Christian  principles  which  he  is  progressively 
acquiring  through  the  teaching  that  he  receives ; 
it  means  that  his  reactions  are  more  and  more 
on  the  plane  of  brotherhood,  because  he  thinks 
of  himself  as  one  of  the  many  sons  of  a  common 
Father ;  it  means  that  his  habits  are  formed  and 
his  conduct  is  controlled  according  to  Christian 
ideals;  it  means,  in  short,  that  he  is  a  growing, 
developing  citizen  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
much  the  same  way  as  he  is  a  growing  citizen  of 
the  state. 

The  questions  of  missionary  education — what 
it  is  to  be,  what  its  aims  are,  what  part  it  is  to 
have  in  the  whole  scheme  of  religious  education 
— are  in  a  fair  way  to  be  answered  when  teach- 
ing and  living,  learning  and  doing  are  rightly 
joined. 

A  One-Sided  Conception  of  Missions.  Most  of  us 
have  need  to  revise  our  thinking  and  to  reor- 
ganize our  teaching  in  regard  to  missions.  For 
a  long  time  both  thinking  and  teaching  have  so 
strongly  emphasized  a  single  side,  the  foreign 
side,  of  the  enterprise,  that  it  has  become  quite 
natural  for  most  people  to  regard  missionary 
activity  as  a  matter  of  geographical  situation, 

13 


MISSIONAKY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

of  position  on  the  map,  rather  than  as  an  atti- 
tude of  life.  The  first  suggestion  which  the  word 
^'missionary'^  brings  is  China,  India,  Africa,  or 
some  far-off — or,  at  the  least,  difficult  and  dis- 
agreeable— field.  Very  seldom  is  it  connected 
with  the  thought  of  helpful  brotherly  living 
wherever  one  may  be;  the  ideal  of  a  life  of  co- 
operation and  sharing,  of  working  together  for 
a  common  goal,  is  as  yet  the  possession  of  the 
few.  It  is  comparatively  easy  to  interest  people 
in  long-distance  missionary  work;  to  get  them 
to  engage  in  the  vital,  intimate,  close-at-hand 
work  is  a  different  matter,  even  when  this  entails 
no  great  sacrifice  and  requires  only  a  considerate 
sharing  of  one's  possessions. 

Three  young  women,  all  living  in  their  own 
homes  and  all  members  of  the  church,  recently 
graduated  from  a  great  eastern  university.  Dur- 
ing their  college  years  each  was  for  a  time  an  in- 
terested member  of  a  mission  study  class  on 
China,  and  each  participated,  through  service  or 
gifts  of  money,  in  the  work  of  their  church  for  a 
Chinese  parish  abroad.  It  chanced  that  among 
the  college  classmates  of  these  young  women  were 
two  or  three  Chinese  girls,  of  whose  scholarly  at- 
tainments the  American  students  often  spoke 
with  a  curious  mixture  of  pride  and  admiration. 
It  might  have  been  supposed  that  these  Chinese 

14 


THE  GOAL 

girls,  preparing  to  go  back  to  work  among  their 
own  people,  would  have  had  more  than  the  usual 
interest  for  these  young  women.  Yet  not  once 
during  the  four  years  did  they  extend  to  the 
foreign  students  the  hospitality  of  their  homes 
for  a  week-end,  nor  did  they  attempt  to  establish 
any  closer  bond  than  the  cursory  acquaintance 
of  the  classroom,  or  make  any  attempt  to  lessen 
the  natural  loneliness  of  girls  far  from  home  and 
in  strange  surroundings.  One  may  smile  a  little 
sadly  at  the  gap  between  principle  and  practise 
and  feel  sure  that  the  American  girls  suffered 
the  greater  loss,  but  the  illustration  shows  the 
result  of  a  one-sided  and  incomplete  conception 
of  missions. 

The  Missionary  Spirit  in  Every-day  Life.  Our  pas- 
tors, our  church  school  superintendents,  and  our 
teachers  must  be  helped  to  gain  a  new  ideal  of 
the  missionary  spirit,  and  our  church  schools 
must  teach  that  the  question  of  missions  is  not  a 
question  of  here  or  there,  of  home  or  foreign  field, 
but  an  attitude  of  life,  a  normal  expression  of 
Christian  thinking  and  living.  The  missionary 
spirit,  when  so  conceived  and  so  taught,  will 
not  be  shown  by  an  occasional  or  even  by  a  regu- 
lar gift;  it  will  be  the  spontaneous  response  of 
the  Christian  to  the  needs  of  his  brothers  every- 
where. 

15 


MISSIONAKY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

Opportunities  for  the  Missionary  Spirit.  Working 
out  the  true  spirit  of  missions  into  every-day  life 
is  not  difficult;  opportunities  abound  on  all  sides. 
The  junior  boys  and  girls  of  a  suburban  church 
passed  a  Chinese  laundryman's  shop  on  their  way 
to  Sunday-school  and  often  looked  askance  at 
him,  if  they  did  not  go  farther  and  actually  tease 
him  and  call  him  names.  One  Sunday  he  ap- 
peared in  the  men's  Bible  class,  and  the  junior 
superintendent,  puzzled  over  some  Chinese  pic- 
ture that  was  presented  on  a  poster,  suggested 
asking  him  to  come  to  the  room  and  explain  it. 
He  did  so  willingly,  gave  one  or  two  personal 
recollections  of  places  shown  on  the  poster  which 
he  had  visited,  and  at  once  won  the  respect  and 
liking  of  the  children.  At  the  close  of  the  lesson 
he  confessed  that  he  did  not  understand  the 
English  used  in  the  Bible  class  very  well  and 
asked  if  he  might  be  permitted  to  go  into  the 
junior  department.  The  children  eagerly  re- 
ceived him,  and  thereafter  they  claimed  him  as 
"our  Chinaman;"  they  looked  upon  him  with 
friendliness  and  liking  and  often  stopped  at  his 
door  to  exchange  a  pleasant  greeting.  Their 
attitude  toward  foreigners  was  changed,  and  a 
bit  of  real  brotherhood  was  built  into  their  lives. 

Such  teaching  may  often  begin  very  early  in 
life  and  be  very  valuable.     A  hungry-hearted 

16 


THE  GOAL 

laundry  man  making  his  weekly  business  call  at 
the  back  door  one  day  regarded  with  much  in- 
terest a  little  three-year-old  boy  at  play  on  the 
porch.  The  baby  returned  his  gaze  with  interest, 
and  finding  something  sympathetic  in  the  look 
bent  upon  him,  selected  his  choicest  picture-card, 
and  running  across  the  floor,  thrust  it  into  the 
hand  of  the  Chinese,  who  grinned  delightedly 
and  broke  out  into  a  torrent  of  appreciative 
words,  whose  spirit,  at  least,  the  child  under- 
stood perfectly.  Thereafter  the  baby  waited 
weekly  for  the  visit  of  "my  mans,"  and  saved 
his  choicest  treasure  to  bestow  on  him,  a  bit  of 
cake  or  candy,  a  picture,  or  a  toy.  The  mother 
encouraged  the  friendship,  knowing  that  the 
child's  interest  made  a  bright  spot  in  the  life  of 
an  exile,  and  realizing,  too,  that  her  son  was  get- 
ting an  idea  of  sharing  and  friendship  that,  in- 
significant as  it  might  seem,  would  never  be  quite 
lost  in  later  life.  Who  can  fail  to  see  the  value 
of  such  teaching  or  discount  the  real  worth  of 
such  contacts  in  developing  that  mutual  self- 
respect  which  must  be  one  of  the  fundamental 
factors  in  the  foundation  of  a  genuine  world 
citizenship? 

Missions  Not  an  Elective.  One  great  weakness  in 
our  teaching  has  come  from  a  misconception  of 
the  place  missions  should  hold  in  the  life  of 

17 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

Christians.  Far  too  often  the  whole  enterprise 
is  looked  upon  as  an  optional  matter  in  which 
the  church  may  or  may  not  participate.  This 
attitude  is  no  doubt  due,  in  part  at  least,  to  the 
position  which  pastors,  superintendents,  and 
teachers  have  taken  in  regarding  missions  as  an 
external  subject,  good  enough  in  a  way,  but  with- 
out any  vital  connection  with  other  material 
of  instruction — something  to  be  added  if  time 
and  inclination  permit.  "Another  subject  to  be 
taught,  when  there  is  so  much  to  do  and  so  little 
time?''  the  church  school  teacher  is  apt  to  groan. 
"No  time  for  it,"  "one  Sunday  a  quarter,'^  "one 
Sunday  a  month  for  ten  minutes,'^  replies  the 
superintendent  to  the  missionary  enthusiast  who 
pleads  that  the  matter  may  have  the  attention 
of  the  school.  If,  by  chance,  the  superintendent 
should  grant  five  minutes  a  Sunday,  he  would 
seem  to  be  giving  a  very  generous,  perhaps  a 
disproportionate  allowance  of  time  to  the  sub- 
ject. Is  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  pupils  leave 
the  church  school  with  the  impression  that  mis- 
sions need  not  have — indeed,  are  hardly  expected 
to  have — any  vital  interest  for  them? 

Missionary  Spirit  the  Genius  of  Christianity.  This 
deplorable  condition  must  remain  till  the  church 
advances  in  its  position  regarding  missions;  it 
cannot  be  changed  until  superintendents  and 

18 


THE  GOAL 

teachers  realize  that  missionary  enterprise  is  not 
an  external,  not  an  addendum,  not  merely  a  vital 
principle  of  Christianity,  but  Christianity  itself. 
No  follower  of  the  Man  of  Galilee  can  take  upon 
his  lips  in  sincerity  and  truth  the  first  word  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  much  less  can  he  use  its  other 
petitions,  without  a  kindling  of  missionary  zeal. 
No  one  can  carry  out  to  its  conclusion  the  least 
of  the  principles  of  the  kingdom  of  God  with- 
out becoming  a  missionar}^  in  deed  and  in  truth, 
whether  his  lot  is  cast  in  the  Dark  Continent  or 
in  the  humblest  rank  and  the  most  prosaic  daily 
calling.  No  one  can  lift  his  heart  in  grateful 
acknowledgment  of  the  richer  life  bestowed  by 
the  Elder  Brother  without  a  quickened  sense  of 
the  worth  of  "the  least  of  these''  who  have  not 
yet  heard  of  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life — 
a  sense  of  the  value  of  others  that  will  deepen 
the  determination  to  share  largely  in  the  service 
of  mankind. 

Summary.  The  church  school,  then,  should  hold 
as  its  objective  the  development  of  Christian 
character — that  is,  the  growth  of  children  in  the 
religious  life  till  they  become  mature  Christians, 
intelligent,  trained,  and  actively  engaged  in  the 
work  of  bringing  the  kingdom  of  God  to  the 
earth.  That  phase  of  religious  education  which 
is  commonly  called  missionary  may  well  be  re- 

19 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

garded  as  the  animating  spirit  of  the  whole, 
since  missionary  enterprise  is  merely  the  prac- 
tical working  out  of  the  principles  of  Christian- 
ity. To  suggest  some  ways  in  which  these  prin- 
ciples may  take  shape  as  the  normal  expression 
of  the  lives  of  boys  and  girls  is  the  aim  of  the 
following  chapters. 


20 


CHAPTEK    II 
KNOWING    ONE'S    PUPILS 

The  TTnderstanding'  of  Children.  The  teacher  who 
accepts  the  proposition  that  efficient  teaching 
must  meet  intelligently  the  practical,  every-day 
needs  of  pupils  is  immediately  aware  of  the  neces- 
sity, first,  for  an  understanding  of  children  in 
general,  and  then,  for  an  understanding  of  his 
own  pupils  in  particular. 

The  successful  farmer  knows  the  characteris- 
tics of  his  various  soils,  and  what  crop  each  will 
best  nourish;  he  chooses  the  right  exposure,  the 
right  drainage,  the  right  season  for  the  seed  he 
is  to  sow;  otherwise  his  harvest  will  be  scanty 
and  inferior.  The  teacher  who  is  to  do  worth- 
while and  effective  work  must  have  a  kindred 
understanding  of  children,  their  characteristics, 
interests,  needs,  and  functions,  at  each  stage  of 
their  development. 

Book  Study  and  Child  Study.  Such  an  under- 
standing may  be  acquired  in  two  ways — by  the 
reading  and  study  of  books  and  by  the  fresh  and 
first-hand  knowledge  which  comes  through  a 
study    of    children    themselves.      Neither    way 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

should  be  used  to  the  entire  exclusion  of  the 
other.  One  may  not  expect  to  gain  a  complete 
knowledge  of  children  from  books  alone;  chil- 
dren are  individual,  and  they  develop  along  in- 
dividual lines — not  always  according  to  rules 
laid  down  in  a  book.  A  teacher  may  spend 
months  studying  child  psychology  and  pedagogy, 
only  to  find  that  the  first  normal,  healthy  child 
he  meets  will  disprove  the  most  plausible  theory, 
but  this  does  not  argue  the  worthlessness  of  such 
study.  However  individuals  may  differ,  there 
are  great  underlying  principles  of  growth,  great 
outstanding  characteristics  that  mark  each  stage 
of  development,  with  which  the  teacher  must  be 
familiar  and  by  which  all  the  work  of  education 
will  be  guided.  Familiarity  with  such  principles 
may  first  be  gained  from  books;  after  that, 
theory  may  be  verified  by  experience,  and  prin- 
ciples tested  by  practise.  The  teacher,  then, 
turns  to  a  course  in  child  study  as  a  guide  to  the 
study  of  his  pupils;  the  chief  value  of  reading 
and  research  lies  in  the  fact  that  principles 
learned  in  this  way  form  a  foundation  for  the 
study  of  children  as  individuals. 

Suggestions  for  Reading.  It  is  not  within  the 
scope  of  this  manual  to  formulate  any  principles 
regarding  child  study  or  even  to  outline  a  course 
of  reading.     Both   things   have  been   too   fre- 

22 


KNOWING  ONE'S  PUPILS 

qiientlj  and  too  well  done  to  warrant  any  such 
attempt  here.  However,  for  the  sake  of  the  in- 
experienced teacher  who  may  wish  to  begin  such 
study,  a  short  list  of  books  is  given  in  the  biblio- 
graphy at  the  end  of  this  book.  When  these  have 
been  mastered  and  the  suggestions  which  they 
contain  for  reading  and  study  have  been  fol- 
lowed, any  one  will  be  able  to  guide  his  own 
further  work  intelligently. 

The  Teacher's  Note-book.  Valuable  and  impor- 
tant as  an  earnest  teacher  will  find  the  many 
books  written  on  subjects  pertaining  to  children, 
of  even  more  worth  to  him  will  be  the  one  which 
he  writes  for  himself;  for  no  teacher  can  afford 
not  to  keep  a  note-book  recording  his  findings 
about  his  pupils.  Preferably  this  should  be  a 
loose-leaf  book,  and  a  section — one  or  more  pages 
— should  be  reserved  for  each  pupil.  At  the  top 
of  each  section  should  be  written  the  name,  ad- 
dress, and  birthday  of  each  child ;  then  may  come, 
if  desired,  the  names  and  church  connections  of 
the  parents;  there  should  follow,  with  plenty  of 
space  under  each  to  allow  for  new  entries  from 
time  to  time,  such  headings  as  may  be  desired 
— ^heredity,  home  surroundings,  community  sur- 
roundings, school  life,  play,  interests,  sports, 
hobbies,  occupations,  reading,  all  are  points  that 

may  well  be  included,  and  each  may  have  sub- 

23 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

heads  if  thought  desirable.  Probably  no  two 
teachers  would  entirely  agree  as  to  just  what 
are  the  most  important  points;  any  teacher  may 
outline  a  chart  to  suit  his  own  ideas.  For  sug- 
gestions consult  Chart  of  Childhood^  by  E.  P.  St. 
John,  Syllabus  for  Child  Study,  by  G.  A.  Coe 
(see  Appendix),  and  the  scheme  in  The  Juniors: 
How  to  Teach  and  Train  Them,  by  Mrs.  M.  J. 
Baldwin.  ( See  bibliography. )  Whatever  plan  is 
chosen  should  have  some  flexibility  and  allow 
for  growth,  and  the  teacher  should  hold  himself 
rigidly  to  recording  the  points  as  he  learns  them. 
If  his  great  desire  is  to  guide  his  pupils  in  the 
right  way,  surely  his  greatest  requisite  is  clear 
and  definite  knowledge  of  their  lives,  and  no 
knowledge  is  quite  so  well  defined  as  that  which 
has  been  expressed  and  written  down. 

Sympathetic  Insight.  Teacher-training  is  receiv- 
ing much  attention  to-day,  and  church  schools 
are  increasingly  demanding  trained  and  skilful 
teachers.  Knowledge  of  methods  is  an  impor- 
tant part  of  any  teacher's  equipment,  but  the 
only  true  basis  on  which  this  may  be  built  is  a 
genuine  understanding  and  knowledge  of  chil- 
dren, and  the  teacher  who  devotes  a  great  deal 
of  time  to  getting  a  sympathetic  insight  into  the 
lives  of  his  pupils  may  feel  that  he  is  making  the 
best  possible  start  toward  efficient  teaching. 

24 


KNOWING  ONE'S  PUPILS 

The  Child's  Desire  for  Approval.  Perhaps  the  first 
great  difficulty  encountered  by  every  worker  with 
children  is  in  getting  at  the  real  boy  and  girl. 
Children  usually  try  to  be  what  they  are  expected 
to  be;  except  in  their  most  intractable  moments, 
they  attempt  to  behave  so  as  to  win  approval; 
as  far  as  they  can,  they  will  return  the  answer 
which  they  think  the  teacher  wishes.  Now  these 
responses  do  not  arise  from  insincerity  or  deceit ; 
they  spring  rather  from  an  instinct  for  approba- 
tion which  has  great  value  during  the  earlier 
years,  when  the  child,  in  the  process  of  becoming 
a  social  being,  must  learn  to  adjust  himself  to 
the  world  in  which  he  lives.  But  this  desire  for 
approval  certainly  does  increase  the  adult's 
difficulty  in  finding  out  exactly  what  his  pupil 
thinks  and  feels.  The  words  of  a  child  often  fail 
to  reveal  him,  and  even  his  behavior  is  not  an  in- 
fallible indication  of  his  true  character. 

The  Child  Outside  the  Church  School  Room.  The 
difficulty  is  increased  by  the  briefness  of  the 
lesson  hour  which  the  class  and  teacher  spend  to- 
gether ;  this  makes  a  real  acquaintance  quite  im- 
possible. Moreover  the  atmosphere  of  the  church 
school  room  is  generally  somewhat  artificial,  and 
a  teacher  soon  realizes  that  an  intelligent  un- 
derstanding of  his  pupils  can  come  only  through 
an  association  much  more  extended  and  natural 

25 


MISSIONAKY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

than  the  schoolroom  will  ever  permit.  Before 
he  can  adapt  his  teaching  to  the  needs  of  his  boys 
and  girls,  he  must  know  all  the  conditions  of 
their  lives,  and  what  responses  they  make  to 
those  conditions.  A  child's  life  at  home  or  at 
the  public  school  often  reveals  him  in  an  entirely 
new  light  and  affords  a  far  truer  conception  of 
his  character.  Even  more  clearly  is  he  shown 
at  his  play;  for  here  he  is  most  natural  and 
most  off  guard.  The  teacher  who  would  fully 
understand  a  group  of  pupils  must  know  them 
on  the  playground  and  note  there  their  reactions 
to  each  other  and  to  the  fortunes  of  the  game; 
he  must  watch  their  interests,  cooperation,  un- 
selfishness, consideration  for  the  weaker,  spirit 
of  responsibility,  leadership,  fair  play,  honesty, 
and  a  score  of  other  qualities.  Observation  of 
this  kind  does  more  than  give  the  teacher  an  in- 
sight into  the  lives  of  his  boys  and  girls;  it 
furnishes  him  the  best  material  for  teaching 
valuable  and  vital  lessons  and  enables  him  to 
give  his  instruction  new  force,  since  its  princi- 
ples find  application  in  every-day  life. 

Community  Influences.  Thinkers  are  not  agreed 
as  to  the  exact  time  at  which  a  child's  education 
begins,  but  whether  one  puts  the  starting-point 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden  or  with  the  grandparents 
or  at  some  intermediate  position,  no  one  will  deny 

26 


KNOWING  ONE'S  PUPILS 

that  heredity  is  an  important  factor  in  a  child's 
life  and  well  worth  the  consideration  of  the 
teacher.  Perhaps  even  more  important  is  the 
question  of  environment.  A  child  reared  in 
squalid  surroundings  may  reject  the  evil  and 
spring  into  a  pure  and  beautiful  life,  like  a  lily 
from  a  muddy  pool;  a  child  from  a  sheltered 
home  may  find  the  downward  path  and  repudiate 
the  careful  teachings  of  youth,  but  such  results 
are  hardly  to  be  expected  in  the  natural  course 
of  events.  Children  are  apt  to  take  their  stamp 
from  their  surroundings  and  to  reflect  to  a  high 
degree  their  native  atmosphere.  The  spirit  of 
"our  street,"  "our  town,"  or  "our  community" 
becomes  theirs.  Many  a  child's  life  has  been 
made  or  marred  through  a  change  in  his  sur- 
roundings. 

Home  Influences.  If  mere  externals  are  so  im- 
portant, how  much  more  so  are  those  closer 
forces  which  we  include  under  the  term  "home 
influences"  !  Children  almost  invariably,  though 
sometimes  quite  unconsciously,  take  the  attitude 
of  the  home;  if  teaching  and  practise  are  at 
variance  here,  it  is  the  practise  which  children 
follow,  often  to  the  distress  of  their  parents.  Not 
long  ago,  in  a  cultured  Christian  home,  the 
parents  lamented  the  fact  that  their  small  daugh- 
ter was  not  democratic  in  her  attitudes  and  re- 

27 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

fused  to  play  with  poorly  dressed  children  or 
those  who  came  from  a  certain  section  of  the 
town.  The  mother  stoutly  insisted  that  every 
means  had  been  used  to  make  the  child  sym- 
pathetic and  Christian  in  her  reactions;  but  the 
guest  could  recall  three  instances  in  her  short 
visit  in  which,  by  shrug  of  shoulder  or  sharp 
comment  or  unkind  judgment,  these  parents  had 
emphasized  the  social  gulf  which  lay  between 
them  and  the  families  whom  their  child  was  now 
considering  beneath  her.  The  parents  were  quite 
sincere  in  their  claims,  and  their  own  attitude 
had  been  so  unconscious  that  they  did  not  dream 
where  the  keen  little  daughter  had  learned  such 
ideas.  Instances  of  this  kind  are  all  too  com- 
mon and  serve  to  show  the  potency  of  home  influ- 
ence. No  other  factor,  indeed,  has  equal  power 
in  confirming  or  canceling  the  teaching  of  the 
church  school,  and  this,  too,  in  spite  of  the  fre- 
quently deplored  fact  that  children  spend  less 
time  in  their  homes  to-day  than  ever  before. 

Cooperation  with  the  Home.  The  influence  of  the 
home  is  much  more  continuous  and  is  far 
stronger  than  any  other,  not  alone  because  the 
child  spends  more  time  there  than  anywhere  else, 
but  also  because  it  touches  his  life  at  so  many 
more  points  that  are  vital  and  significant.  No 
argument  is  needed  to  convince  the  teacher  of  the 


KN0WI:NG  ONE'S  PUPILS 

value  of  allying  the  home  on  the  side  of  the 
school  in  the  work  of  character  building;  nor 
will  cooperation  be  found  a  difficult  thing  to  ac- 
complish. The  homes  which  present  an  active 
opposition  to  the  church  school  are  in  the  minor- 
ity and  are  not  as  hard  to  w^in  as  those  which 
are  indifferent.  Even  these  are  not  hopeless, 
for  in  this  century  of  the  child  most  parents  are 
ready  and  eager  to  cooperate  with  any  one  who 
is  striving  for  the  betterment  of  their  children; 
they  are  only  too  glad  to  second  the  efforts  of 
those  teachers  in  secular  school  or  in  church 
school  who  seek  the  richest  and  fullest  develop- 
ment in  the  lives  of  their  pupils. 

Knowledge  of  Home  Conditions.  But  important 
and  valuable  as  this  home  cooperation  may  prove 
to  be,  it  is  not  the  chief  end  in  the  mind  of  the 
teacher  when  he  sets  out  to  know  his  pupil  at 
home.  The  child's  attitude  to  his  home  and  its 
activities,  the  attitude  of  the  home  to  the  school, 
to  reading,  to  recreations,  to  education,  to  all  the 
questions  of  life  are  doors  through  which  the 
teacher  looks  in  upon  the  real  child,  channels 
through  which  he  gains  a  sympathetic  under- 
standing of  his  real  needs  and  problems.  Often 
a  single  visit  will  give  a  teacher  a  key  to  a  baffling 
situation  and  be  sufficient  to  cause  an  entire 
change  in  the  treatment  of  a  puzzling  pupil.    A 

29 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

knowledge  of  home  conditions  may  give  a  teacher 
new  courage  and  added  zeal,  and  it  must  always 
make  his  work  more  intelligent. 

Public  School  Influences.  Another  approach  to 
the  real  boy  or  girl  too  little  used  by  the  church 
school  teacher  is  through  his  public  school  life. 
The  advantage  of  knowing  a  pupil's  equipment  in 
geography,  history,  reading,  writing,  map-draw- 
ing, or  English  is  at  once  apparent.  It  is  quite 
as  useful  to  know  his  standing  in  the  class,  his 
likes  and  dislikes  for  his  various  lessons,  his 
school  interests  and  sports. 

Cooperation  with  the  Public  School.  Yet  there  are 
surprisingly  few  church  school  teachers  who 
have  any  knowledge  of  the  school  life  of  their 
pupils.  This  is  partly  because  the  teachers  fail 
to  see  the  advantage  such  knowledge  would  give 
and  partly  because  many  of  them  are  busy  men 
and  women  who  can  seldom,  if  ever,  pay  a  visit 
to  the  public  schools.  More  potent  than  either 
of  these  reasons  is  the  utter  separation  of  church 
and  state  in  this  country.  While  the  principle 
is  undoubtedly  right,  its  practise  has  resulted  in 
the  rather  curious  situation  of  two  sets  of 
teachers,  the  religious  and  the  secular,  seeking 
similar  ends  without  any  attempt  at  cooperation. 
For,  though  the  public  school  may  not  step  over 
into  the  field  of  religious  education,  there  is  an 

30 


KNOWING  ONE'S  PUPILS 

increasing  number  of  teachers  who  value  charac- 
ter more  highly  than  knowledge  and  who  realize 
that  teaching  children  is  quite  different  and 
vastly  more  important  than  teaching  books.  It 
would  seem,  therefore,  that  church  school  and 
public  school  teachers  might  gain  mutual  benefit 
by  working  together.  Such  cooperation  should 
never  be  official  or  formal;  it  should  rather  con- 
sist of  an  interchange  of  information  concern- 
ing any  pupil  that  would  make  the  work  of  either 
teacher  more  intelligent,  and  of  such  adjustment 
of  hours  and  use  of  agencies  as  should  be  deemed 
best  for  the  pupils'  real  advancement. 

Examples  of  Cooperation.  A  certain  public  school 
principal  had  discovered  evil  tendencies  in  a 
pupil  and  tried  in  vain  to  check  them.  At  last 
he  appealed  to  the  boy's  rector,  and  a  whole  train 
of  influences  beyond  the  teacher's  reach  was  im- 
mediately set  in  play.  In  another  instance  a 
church  school  teacher  asked  her  superintendent 
for  help  in  getting  at  a  particularly  trying  pupil. 
The  superintendent  chanced  to  know  the  boy's 
public  school  teacher  and  principal,  and  he  put 
them  in  touch  with  the  church  school  teacher. 
Such  strong  and  intelligent  cooperation  followed 
that  the  boy's  entire  attitude  was  changed,  and 
he  made  in  both  schools  what  ^^'as  for  him  re- 
markable progress. 

31 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIOBS 

A  Plan  for  Cooperation.  Such  instances  are  all 
too  rare,  but  it  ought  to  be  possible  to  multiply 
them  a  thousand  fold,  to  the  great  advantage  of 
the  children.  Cooperation  between  public  and 
church  schools  must,  of  course,  be  based  on 
mutual  respect  and  exist  only  for  the  common 
end  for  which  both  are  working.  Any  church 
school  which  initiates  such  an  effort  will  find  it 
a  genuine  contribution  to  the  welfare  of  its 
pupils.  The  first  step  could  be  a  form  letter  ad- 
dressed to  the  public  school  teacher;  this  should 
contain  the  name  and  address  of  the  pupil,  with 
his  grades  and  his  teachers  both  in  public  and 
church  school;  then  should  follow  questions  (so 
worded  as  to  allow  very  brief  answers)  as  to  the 
pupil's  ability,  characteristics,  and  reactions  to 
situations,  with  requests  for  suggestions  as  to 
points  at  which  the  church  school  might 
strengthen  its  work  and  cooperate  more  closely 
with  the  day-school.  An  arrangement  for  an  ex- 
change of  simple  and  unofficial  reports  between 
the  two  schools  could  be  made  with  little  trouble, 
and  it  would  be  quite  feasible  in  many  places  to 
bring  parents  and  teachers  of  both  the  church- 
and  day-school  together  in  a  yearly  or  semi-yearly 
conference  that  would  be  productive  of  a  better 
mutual  understanding  and  efficiency. 

Knowledge  of  School  Life.    But,  as  in  the  case  of 


KNOWING  ONE'S  PUPILS 

the  study  of  the  home  life,  no  church  school 
teacher  must  forego  acquaintance  with  his  pupil's 
school  life,  even  if  he  cannot  gain  the  cooperation 
of  the  school  itself;  there  are  many  points  in 
the  school  life  of  the  pupil  which  the  religious 
teacher  needs  to  know,  and  he  can  hardly  get 
possession  of  them  in  any  way  except  by  actually 
visiting  the  school.  The  child's  attitude  to  his 
teachers,  his  mates  on  the  playground  and  in  the 
classroom,  the  pictures  he  looks  at  daily,  the 
school  atmosphere  and  spirit,  all  are  worth  the 
teacher's  effort  to  know  and  understand.  Many 
a  religious  worker  has  returned  from  a  visit  to 
the  bright,  attractive  public  school  rooms  that 
are  now  fortunately  so  common  to  the  dark, 
dingy  church  school  rooms  with  a  new  percep- 
tion of  what  pupils  find — or,  rather,  fail  to  find 
— ^in  the  church  school  and  a  new  vision  of  what 
is  needed.  Too  often  anything  is  considered  good 
enough  for  the  church  school,  and  upon  it  are 
forced  conditions  no  one  would  tolerate  for  an 
instant  in  the  public  school.  "Why  should  our 
boys  consider  this  school  of  equal  importance 
with  their  high  school?"  asked  the  pastor  of  a 
wealthy  church  recently,  as  he  returned  from 
making  an  address  to  the  pupils  of  the  high 
school,  where  every  surrounding  had  been  favor- 
able and  all  the  exercises  had  moved  with  spirit 

S3 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

and  dignity.  "These  dull  and  dingy  rooms  with 
their  poor  equipment  they  naturally  take  as  the 
measure  of  the  value  which  we  place  on  the  work, 
and  why  should  they  hold  it  in  any  higher  esti- 
mation?" When  the  church  sees  this  fact  in  all 
its  bearings,  there  will  be  a  willing  consecration 
of  means  to  make  the  church  school  in  its  outer, 
material  side  much  more  nearly  the  equal  of 
the  public  school. 

The  Child  and  His  Occupations.  But  strong  as 
school  influences  are  in  shaping  a  child's  life, 
they  are  not  all ;  the  teacher  who  is  charting  his 
pupils  finds  that  a  junior  boy  or  girl  spends  not 
more  than  five  or  six  hours  daily  in  the  school- 
room for  ten  months  of  the  year;  what  is  done 
with  the  rest  of  the  time?  How  does  the  child 
occupy  himself  when  out  of  school?  Sometimes 
his  occupations  may  be  imposed  upon  him  by 
others  or  by  necessity,  and  when  this  is  true,  the 
teacher  may  see  in  them  special  pitfalls  and 
temptations.  The  junior  boy  who  has  a  Sunday 
morning  paper  route  or  whose  Italian  father  finds 
that  day  such  a  busy  one  in  his  barber  shop  that 
he  needs  the  child's  assistance  has  quite  other 
difficulties  in  his  way  than  the  child  of  leis- 
ure who  rides  comfortably  to  the  church.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  boy  is  free  to  choose  his 
occupations,  they  then  form  a  pretty  sure  indica- 

34 


KNOWING  ONE'S  PUPILS 

tion  of  his  interests ;  in  any  case,  occupations  are 
a  vital  part  of  a  child's  life,  and  the  teacher  must 
be  fully  cognizant  of  them. 

It  is  often  a  very  illuminating  thing  for  teacher 
and  parent  alike,  to  make  out  the  child's  schedule 
of  time  for  a  week.  Day-school,  music  lesson, 
motoring,  basket-ball,  and  "movies,"  fill  the  days 
so  full  that  no  time  is  left  for  reading,  for  the 
service  of  others,  for  the  quiet  cultivation  of  the 
finer  things  of  true  and  lasting  value.  School 
and  play  are  good  and  should  claim  a  large  part 
of  the  child's  time,  but  after  all,  there  are  other 
things  even  more  worth  while.  A  mother  rather 
reluctantly  sent  her  son  for  one  hour  weekly  to 
Sunday-school  and  questioned  the  teacher  closely 
as  to  Avhat  he  was  getting  from  the  brief  session. 
But  when  her  cooperation  was  sought  in  the 
home-work,  she  answered  slowly,  "I  wdll,  if  I  can 
find  the  time;  there  are  so  many  other  things  to 
do !"  The  emphasis  on  "other"  left  no  room  for 
doubt  as  to  which  she  considered  the  really  im- 
portant thing's.  There  is  much  need  for  a  change 
of  view  and  a  shifting  of  perspectives,  till  mat- 
ters innocent  enough  in  themselves  but  of  minor 
worth  are  relegated  to  their  proper  place,  and  the 
truly  valuable  things  are  allowed  to  have  the 
first  place,  if  the  coming  generation  is  to  receive 
the  torch  undimmed. 

35 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

The  Interest  in  Books.  One  characteristic  of  the 
junior  period  that  merits  the  most  careful  study 
of  the  teacher  is  the  reading  hunger  which  marks 
the  developing  mental  life  of  the  boy  and  girl. 
The  career  of  many  a  child  has  been  entirely 
changed  by  reading  the  right  book  at  this  time, 
and  no  teacher  can  afford  to  miss  this  wonderful 
opportunity  for  directing  and  influencing  his 
pupils.  Their  demand  is  for  "exciting"  stories, 
stories  with  thrill  and  action,  and  the  wise  leader 
supplies  this  need  with  tales  of  splendid  adven- 
ture taken  from  the  lives  of  the  great  men  and 
women  of  the  world,  who  may  become  the  ideals 
of  boys  and  girls  just  entering  on  the  hero-wor- 
shiping age.  Hero  stories  taken  from  the  biogra- 
phies of  many  missionaries,  reformers,  and  lead- 
ers of  the  world's  progress  will  be  read  and 
reread  by  junior  pupils,  if  once  they  are  made 
accessible,  and  they  may  become  potent  influences 
in  many  a  young  life. 

The  Acquisitive  Instinct.  Another  indication  of 
junior  interests  which  the  teacher  should  use  is 
the  acquisitive  instinct;  this  is  strong,  and  it 
shows  itself  in  the  love  of  collections  and  the 
hoarding  of  treasures.  It  is  the  exceptional 
child  who  does  not  have  a  collection  of  coins, 
stamps,  stones,  shells,  cards,  or  curios  of  some 
sort. 

36 


KNOWING  ONE'S  PUPILS 

Other  Characteristics.  The  interest  in  solving 
puzzles  is  now  at  its  height,  and  the  child  loves  to 
test  his  ingenuity  by  all  sorts  of  riddles,  conun- 
drums, and  guessing  games.  This  the  teacher 
may  turn  to  account;  he  may  often  make  the 
gaining  and  fixing  of  knowledge  pleasant  by 
means  of  a  puzzle.  The  development  of  the  his- 
torical sense  and  the  new  interest  in  the  sequence 
of  events  suggests  how  Bible  and  missionary 
material  ought  to  be  taught;  the  receptive  power 
of  the  memory  indicates  that  now  is  the  time  to 
store  the  mind  with  the  great  treasures  of  litera- 
ture. 

Direction  of  Activity.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to 
recapitulate  all  the  characteristics  of  the  junior 
period;  enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  some 
of  the  most  outstanding  ones  and  to  suggest  how 
the  teacher  must  make  use  of  them.  Many  may 
be  included  under  the  one  term  that  alone  most 
fully  describes  a  normal  junior  child's  life — 
activity.  How  to  direct  this  eager,  restless,  over- 
flowing energ;}^  of  the  child  is  the  teacher's  great- 
est problem.  Its  answer  must  come  from  a  veiy 
close  and  true  understanding  of  the  pupil.  Per- 
haps a  teacher  may  hope  to  possess  this  under- 
standing to  a  higher  degree  even  than  the  par- 
ents, as  he  stands  farther  away  from  the  pupil 
and  therefore  views  him  in  a  different  and  more 

37 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

advantageous  perspective.  Moreover  the  teacher 
is  a  trained  observer;  he  understands  the  princi- 
ples of  child  study ;  presumably  he  has  a  love  for 
and  a  sympathy  with  children,  or  he  would  not  be 
a  teacher.  All  of  these  may  make  his  obser- 
vations of  children,  in  many  cases,  more  valuable 
than  those  of  parents.  On  the  other  hand,  par- 
ents have  countless  opportunities  to  watch  the 
reactions  and  responses  of  their  children  that 
teachers  never  have,  and  when  their  observation 
is  intelligent  and  accurate,  the  results  are  most 
worth  while.  In  any  case  the  student  of  chil- 
dren must  gain  the  necessary  insight  through 
training,  association,  genuine  love,  and  sym- 
pathy. When  these  are  combined  with  boundless 
patience,  absolute  faith  in  the  child's  possibili- 
ties, and  a  complete  reliance  on  divine  guidance, 
work  with  children  becomes  a  joy  and  an  inspira- 
tion. 


CHAPTER    III 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  THROUGH 
ACTIVITY 

The  Guidance  of  Activity.  The  church  school 
teacher  who  maps  out  for  himself  a  definite 
course  of  child  study  and  systematically  follows 
it  in  his  work  with  his  own  pupils  soon  acquires 
a  knowledge  of  his  class  that  lessens  his  diffi- 
culties and  doubles  his  effectiveness.  More  than 
this,  in  gaining  familiarity  with  the  character- 
istics of  a  single  group  of  children  he  has  learned 
the  distinguishing  traits  of  all  boys  and  girls  of 
the  same  stage  of  development.  He  knows  the 
laws  that  govern  their  growth ;  he  is  acquainted 
with  their  needs  and  their  interests ;  he  possesses 
an  understanding  of  their  natures  which  is 
absolutely  essential,  if  he  Avould  rightly  guide 
their  activities.  What  these  activities  are  to  be 
and  how  they  are  to  be  guided  is  one  of  the 
educator's  most  significant  questions. 

Discipline  and  Activity.  Since  activity  is  the 
most  marked  characteristic  of  childhood,  it  might 
seem  that  its  very  naturalness  would  have  sug- 
gested its  value,   but  this  has  not  been  true. 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

Though  educators  are  now  coming  to  understand 
more  clearly  the  importance  of  activity  in  educa- 
tion, there  are  far  too  many  who  still  cling  to  the 
old  standard  and  consider  that  order  nearest  to 
perfection  under  which  the  pupils  obey  most 
rigidly  the  rules,  "Sit  still !  Be  quiet !''  This  is 
particularly  true  of  secular  schools,  but  the 
greater  freedom  often  seen  in  church  schools  does 
not  necessarily  mean  that  church  school  teachers 
see  the  relation  of  activity  to  education  more 
clearly.  The  lack  of  repression  too  often  arises 
from  sheer  inability  on  the  part  of  the  teacher 
to  keep  order;  it  even  comes  sometimes  from  a 
fear  that  strict  measures  may  be  so  unpopular 
with  the  pupils  as  to  drive  them  away  from 
school.  This  is  an  ill-founded  notion ;  pupils  will 
never  have  a  real  respect  for  a  teacher  or  a  school 
that  permits  genuine  disorder.  There  can  be 
little  question  that  order  gained  through  stern 
and  repressive  measures  is  better  than  no  order 
at  all  and  may  sometimes  be  the  first  essential. 
It  should,  however,  soon  pass  over  into  a  happy 
and  productive  activity,  well  directed  into  defi- 
nite lines  and  planned  to  result  in  desirable  ends. 
Physical  Activity  and  Mental  Development.  Body 
and  mind  are  not  two  distinct  things.  Physical 
activity  is  not  an  evil  to  be  frowned  upon  and 
kept  down;  it  is  a  genuine  help  to  the  under- 

40 


EDUCATION  THRQUaH  ACTIVITY 

standing.    Doing  is  not  a  result  of  learning,  it  is  v.^ 
a  part  of  the  process ;  and  we  are  coming  to  em- 
phasize activity  in  education  because  we  see  its 
vital  connection  with  mental  development.    This 
principle  holds  good  in  religious  as  well  as  in 
secular  education,  and  the  church  school  teacher  '^ 
must  strive  to  make  Christian  not  only  the  think-  *^ 
ing  but  the  activity  of  his  pupils.     The  child's 
eager  desire  to  do  something  is  an  opportunity 
which  the  teacher  must  turn  to  account  by  pro- 
viding all  sorts  of  instructional  activities,  such  as 
pasting    pictures,    making    note-books,    charts,    "^ 
maps,  and  bulletins,  and  illustrating  and  illumi- 
nating hymns. 

Activities  and  the  Habit  of  Sharing.     There  are 
also  many  lines  of  activities  which  will  help  the 
pupil    to    form    the    finest   ideals    of    Christian  ^ 
brotherhood.     To  be  sure,  the  altruistic  motive  ^ 
does  not  appear  till  adolescence,  and  the  junior  ^ 
child  is   still  self-centered  and  individualistic ;  ^ 
he  knows  nothing  of  the  great,  glowing  ideals  of 
service  that  will  so  move  him  a  few  years  later. 
The  desire  to  do  what  the  rest  of  the  class  is 
doing  or  the  wish  to  win  the  approval  of  his 
teacher  may  be  the  highest  motives  operative 
now.    But  the  teacher  must  use  these,  if  no  higher 
ones  exist,  and  the  child  will  respond  with  keen 
zest  to  the  appeal  of  the  needs  of  other  children 

41 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

and  work  with  surprising  energy  to  fill  them. 
Even  if  the  motive  is  a  low  one,  the  habit  of 
working  with  others  for  a  common  cause  may  bi^ 
started,  and  the  joy  of  sharing  may  be  experi- 
enced. If,  at  this  period,  a  teacher,  without 
using  sufficient  pressure  to  produce  antagonism, 
can  induce  children  to, follow  the  right  course  of 
action  for  a  time,  a  tendency  to  choose  it  volun- 
tarily will  be  developed.  If  working  for  others 
is  found  to  be  more  agreeable  and  to  bring  pleas- 
anter  results  than  selfish  activity,  the  lower, 
selfish  motive  will  gradually  be  lost  in  a  higher 
one.  Acts  once  performed  to  win  approval  will 
come  to  be  motivated  by  pity,  and  this  in  turn 
will  give  place  to  the  motive  of  love.  Sharing 
will  then  seem  better  than  giving,  and  service 
more  inspiring  than  duty  or  self-sacrifice.  All 
this  will  come  later,  but  the  teacher  must  start 
from  the  child's  plane  and  make  use  of  the  high- 
est motive  that  will  be  effective. 

Activities  and  the  Child's  Interests.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  add  that  the  principle  governing  the 
choice  of  activities  will  be  the  interests  of  the 
pupils.  It  was  once  believed,  in  the  phrase  of 
Mr.  Dooley,  that  "it  don't  make  any  difference 
what  ye  teach  children,  provided  they  don't  like 
if  But  that  conception  of  education  is  rele- 
gated to  the  past.     Perhaps  we  feel  that  some- 

42 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  ACTIVITY 

thing  of  strength  and  stability  has  gone  with  it, 
but  in  the  long  run  we  hold  the  new  regime  to 
be  better  than  the  old.  xVdults  with  trained  wills 
and  large  powers  of  concentration  may  hold 
themselves  to  dull  and  uninteresting  tasks,  but 
children  cannot.  If  too  much  compulsion  is  used,  ' ' 
there  is  great  danger  of  fostering  a  deep  dislike 
for  the  work  and  everything  connected  with  it, 
thus  defeating  the  very  end  that  is  sought.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  child  is  genuinely  interested  v" 
in  a  thing,  he  will  often  display  astonishing  per- 
sistence and  application.  Work  so  done  partakes 
of  the  nature  of  play ;  it  is  vastly  easier  and  is  a 
far  finer  way  of  developing  character.  Clearly, 
then,  a  teacher  must  know  what  junior  boys  and 
girls  like  to  do.    What  are  their  interests? 

The  Interest  of  Curiosity.  In  the  first  place,  boys 
and  girls  from  nine  to  twelve  are  living  in  a 
rapidly  enlarging  world.  They  have  very  re- 
cently acquired  some  conception  of  time  and 
space;  at  every  turn  they  meet  some  new  thing, 
are  confronted  with  some  new  situation.  They 
are  eager  for  these  new  experiences;  they  are 
curious  about  the  things  they  see  and  hear ;  their 
importunate  questions  show  their  hunger  to 
know;  the  magnitude  of  their  demands  leaves 
their  elders  gasping.  "Tell  me  how  brass  beds 
and  bureaus  and  carpets  and  rubber  tires  and 

43 


MISSIONAKY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

furniture  and  everything  we  use  are  made!'^  was 
the  modest  request  of  one  hungry  mind.  But 
the  child  is  by  no  means  satisfied  to  be  a  passive 
receiver  of  information ;  he  goes  actively  in  search 
of  it  and  tries  out  many  a  thing  to  ^'see  how  it 
works."  With  powers  of  reasoning  yet  weak  and 
experience  yet  limited,  is  it  any  wonder  that  a 
bright  boy  or  girl  often  sets  in  motion  a  train 
of  circumstances  whose  outcome  he  did  not  fore- 
see? Most  of  the  mischief  of  a  junior  child  is 
absolutely  without  viciousness ;  it  comes  from  his 
eager  desire  to  find  out.  "Didn't  you  know  you 
ought  not  to  do  that?"  demands  the  annoyed 
adult,  forgetting  his  own  childhood  days  and  fail- 
ing to  realize  that,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case, 
the  child  could  not  know. 

The  Teacher's  Use  of  Curiosity.  These  days  of 
questioning  and  research  are  golden  ones  for  the 
child,  and  happy  is  that  boy  or  girl  whose  par- 
ents and  teachers  recognize  this  and  supply  his 
hungry  mind  with  the  right  food,  while  setting 
him  to  finding  out  things  for  himself.  All  sorts 
of  investigations  in  connection  wdth  the  school, 
the  church,  the  community,  matters  of  historical 
interest,  current  events,  or  industry  will  interest 
him,  and  he  will  carry  them  out  with  real  profit. 
A  picture  of  Carey  or  Paton  or  Grenfell  on  the 
bulletin   board  with,   underneath,   the  question 

44 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  ACTIVITY 

^*Wlio  was  he?''  sets  the  child  hunting  through 
books  and  magazines  till  he  finds  the  answer; 
then  the  question  "What  did  he  do?''  starts  him 
on  another  search  that  not  only  interests  but 
instructs  him  and  gives  him  facts  that  can  hardly 
fail  to  make  an  impression.  The  suggestion, 
"Find  out  what  the  sexton  of  the  church  does 
to  earn  his  salary,"  is  likely  to  send  an  astonished 
group  back  with  a  long  report  and  may  result 
in  an  increased  respect  and  consideration  for  a 
humble  worker  which  will  manifest  itself  in 
added  care  of  books,  papers,  and  rooms. 

''How  many  bird  baths  are  there  in  your  town 
or  section?  How  many  drinking  fountains  for 
cats  and  dogs?  How  many  for  horses?  Is  this 
enough?  What  can  we  do  about  it?"  "What 
can  you  suggest  to  make  our  church  lawn  more 
beautiful?"  "How  many  boys  and  girls  liye  in 
our  church  community?  Haye  they  playgrounds? 
How  many?  Is  that  enough?  What  can  we  do 
about  it?"  "Find  out  the  best  thing  Italy  (or 
«Iapan  or  any  other  country  the  teacher  may 
choose)  has  giyen  the  world;"  "How  can  our 
class  make  Thanksgiying  a  happy  time  for  a 
family  without  food?"  "Help  me  plan  a  good 
April  Fool  Day  for  some  lonely,  hungry  children, 
whose  mother  washes  away  from  home  all  day ;" 
"How  can  we  spend  our  Fourth  of  July  holiday 

45 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

so  as  to  help  the  Hungarian  children  that  came 
into  our  Sunday-school  last  spring  to  understand 
what  it  means  to  be  good  Americans  ?''  All  these 
are  types  of  questions  that  will  make  a  junior 
class  or  department  think,  and  if  the  right  help 
and  direction  is  given,  the  answers,  expressed 
in  terms  of  cooperation  and  actual  service,  may 
grow  into  real  Christian  living. 

The  Creative  Interest  and  Its  Use.  But  junior 
children  are  not  only  investigative,  they  are 
creative,  and  in  no  way  do  they  show  their  desire 
for  self-expression  more  truly  than  in  their  at- 
tempts to  "make  something."  Few  needs  of  chil- 
dren have  been  more  misunderstood  and  less 
rightly  used  than  this  one,  in  spite  of  the  em- 
phasis placed  on  manual  training  in  modern  edu- 
cation. More  particularly  is  this  true  in  religious 
education.  Few  teachers  in  the  Cuurch  school 
use  "hand-work''  with  any  intelligent  conception 
of  the  part  it  should  have  in  the  development  of 
the  child ;  they  employ  it  simply  because  they  are 
required  to  do  so  by  the  superintendent;  and  it 
is  all  too  easy  to  find  officers  who  have  put 
manual  work  into  use  in  church  schools  for  no 
better  reason  than  that  it  has  seemed  a  success- 
ful method  in  some  other  school.  Such  an  unin- 
telligent use  of  even  the  very  best  method  cannot 
bring  the  best  results.     No  activity  should  be 

46 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  ACTIVITY 

chosen  because  it  is  interesting  and  worth  while 
in  itself,  but  because  it  will  help  the  child  in 
building  his  character.  This  must  be  the  great 
determining  motive  in  the  mind  of  the  church 
school  teacher.  Manual  skill  in  itself  is  a  very 
valuable  asset,  to  be  sure,  and  to  considerable 
extent  the  child  who  plants  a  garden  or  weaves  a 
l)asket  or  makes  any  article  with  tools  may  enter 
into  a  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  men  and 
women  who  toil  in  similar  ways  for  the  good  of 
mankind.  Herein  lies  one  of  the  greatest  values 
of  all  manual  work.  Equally  important  to  the 
religious  teacher  is  the  possibility  of  turning  the 
skill  of  pupils  to  ends  of  service  and  lifting  all 
work  from  the  narrow,  individualistic  plane  to 
the  higher  one  of  social,  Christian  living. 

Since  the  desire  of  children  to  make  things  is 
instinctive  and  can  be  turned  to  such  good  ac- 
count in  their  development,  it  is  little  short  of 
a  crime  to  deny  to  a  child  the  joy  of  creating 
something  that  is  really  good  and  useful.  One 
afternoon  recently  I  watched  a  small  girl  strug- 
gle for  hours  to  make  a  doll's  table;  she  had  a 
huge  hammer,  a  few  small  nails,  a  box  cover,  and 
four  hard-wood  broomsticks.  Circumstances 
prevented  my  helping  her,  but  I  can  yet  hear  the 
bitter  disappointment  in  her  tone,  as  she  at 
length  pushed  her  curls  out  of  her  eyes,  saying, 

47 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

"I  have  such  a  disgust,  because  it  won't  standi'^ 
The  money  that  had  gone  into  the  ribbons  she 
was  wearing  would  have  purchased  a  simple 
equipment  for  making  real  things,  and  a  half 
hour  of  the  cooperation  I  had  no  right  to  extend 
would  have  enabled  her  to  enter,  in  a  measure, 
at  least,  into  Ruskin's  experience,  "I  know  what 
joy  is,  for  I  have  done  good  work."  If,  in  ad- 
dition, she  had  been  helped  to  make  some  simple 
to3^s  for  the  little  paralysis  victims,  of  whom  she 
was  hearing  much,  she  would  have  tasted  the 
joy  of  sharing,  and  her  whole  life  would  have 
been  deepened  and  enriched. 

Emphasis  on  Service.  It  is  when  junior  activi- 
ties are  given  the  emphasis  of  service  and  shar- 
ing that  the}^  become  of  highest  educational  value 
in  religious  work.  The  boy  who,  in  a  public 
school  manual  training  class,  learns  to  cut  a  set 
of  jointed  animals  or  to  construct  a  doll's  house 
or  to  make  a  copper  desk  set  gains  a  degree  of 
skill  that  will  always  be  of  use  to  him.  But 
when  he  has  made  a  set  of  toys  to  brighten  the 
days  of  a  crippled  child  or  to  give  pleasure  to  the 
babies  in  a  hospital  or  Home,  when  he  gives  his 
best  handiwork  as  a  parting  remembrance  to 
some  missionary  departing  to  his  field,  he  has 
found  one  way  of  sharing  the  pleasures  and  privi- 
leges of  his  daily  life.    Moreover  he  values  most 

48 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  ACTIVITY 

that  for  which  he  has  worked  hardest  and  sacri- 
ficed most ;  his  interest  follows  the  gift  into  which 
he  has  put  so  much  of  himself,  and  he  feels 
a  certain  A\holesome  sense  of  ownership  in  the 
enterprise  to  which  he  has  contributed. 

Service  Activities  in  the  School.  The  junior  child, 
then,  should  find  many  opportunities  to  turn 
his  abounding  energy  into  channels  of  service. 
Naturally  his  first  effort  may  be  for  himself,  and 
his  second  for  his  school,  but  even  the  instruc- 
tional activities,  such  as  pasting  note-books, 
drawing  maps,  preparing  posters,  or  making 
models  to  illustrate  Bible  lessons,  may  become 
service  activities,  if  the  finished  product  is  de- 
signed for  use  in  the  class  or  department,  or  is 
to  be  sent  as  a  gift  to  some  other  school.  There 
are  many  small  services  Avhich  junior  children 
can  perform  in  any  church  school ;  these  may  be 
dignified  and  become  a  class  honor,  if  the  chil- 
dren who  undertake  them  are  called  pages  and 
chosen  monthly  from  the  classes  having  the  best 
record.  An  arm  band  of  the  junior  colors,  green 
and  white,  with  a  large  P,  lends  interest  to  the 
service  in  the  child's  mind.  The  pages'  regular 
duties  may  consist  of  getting  out  supplies,  put- 
ting them  away  at  the  close  of  the  hour,  welcom- 
ing visitors  and  conducting  them  to  the  proper 
officer,  and  many  other  things  that  help  very 

49 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

materially.  Other  school  services  would  be  rais- 
ing flowers  for  use  in  the  assembly-room  or  gath- 
ering wild  flowers  for  this  purpose,  earning  or 
saving  money  to  buy  pictures  for  the  school, 
beautifying  the  church  lawn,  and  acting  as  mes- 
sengers for  the  pastor  or  superintendent. 

The  Personal  Touch  in  Wider  Service.  When  the 
interest  extends  beyond  the  community,  it  is 
often  possible  to  establish  a  personal  touch  which 
is  worth  much;  country  and  city  children,  for 
example,  may  serve  each  other  with  mutual  bene- 
fit. One  city  school  sent  yearly  an  individual 
gift  to  each  pupil  in  a  Maine  mission  school,  and 
no  Christmas  tree  was  ever  quite  so  tall  and 
stately,  no  Christmas  wreaths  were  ever  quite  so 
fragrant  as  those  sent  to  the  city  school  by  the 
Maine  pupils.  The  members  of  a  suburban 
flower  mission  band  became  doubly  alive  to  the 
need  of  their  work  when  some  little  waifs  from 
the  city  were  brought  out  to  their  town  for  a 
day's  fun,  and  they  could  see  for  themselves  the 
joy  of  the  children  in  the  flowers  and  the  fresh 
air.  It  is  more  difficult  to  establish  such  a  rela- 
tion when  the  distance  between  the  sharers  is 
great,  but  this  can  be  done  through  letters  and 
I)ictures,  and  perhaps,  through  the  exchange  of 
school  reports  or  samples  of  school  work,  cloth- 
ing, and  curios.    The  bond  of  sympathy  can  be 

50 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  ACTIVITY 

created,  too,  when  the  home  children  are  helped 
to  make  things  for  others  less  fortunate  than 
themselves.  Most  children  can  make  easily  and 
well  a  great  variety  of  games,  toys,  puzzles,  and 
other  things  for  the  use  and  pleasure  of  others. 
What  to  make,  how  to  make  it,  and  how  such 
activity  is  to  become  a  factor  in  missionary  edu- 
cation I  have  tried  to  suggest  in  Things  to  Make. 
(See  bibliography.)  Chapter  VII  of  this  book 
also  contains  suggestions  for  hand- work. 

The  Motive  of  Service.  The  more  natural  and 
normal  sharing  becomes,  the  more  integral  a 
part  of  character  has  it  grown  to  be.  If  juniors 
are  taught  to  share  all  their  pleasures  and  fun  as 
a  matter  of  course,  to  divide  Avith  shut-in  chil- 
dren the  flowers  gathered  on  a  hike,  to  pass  on  to 
some  other  child  the  dainty,  useful,  or  amusing 
thing  they  have  made,  to  make  all  the  holidays 
times  of  joy  for  less  fortunate  people,  they  will 
form  habits  of  thoughtfulness,  service,  and 
brotherhood,  and  sharing  will  grow  to  be  the  or- 
dinary expression  of  their  lives.  Such  an  ideal 
of  service  must  be  the  guiding  motive  of  the 
teacher  who  would  use  and  direct  the  activities 
of  his  pupils  in  their  religious  growth.  Only 
when  the  work  is  chosen  for  this  purpose  and 
done  in  this  spirit  does  it  have  any  real  value 
as  material  for  missionary  education. 


CHAPTER    IV 
TRAINING   IN   GIVING 

Character  Through  Giving.  No  single  phase  of 
religious  education  presents  a  finer  means  of 
training  and  developing  Christian  character  than 
that  of  giving,  and  none  has  received  less  intelli- 
gent consideration,  especially  where  junior  boys 
and  girls  are  concerned.  This  may  come  from  the 
fact  that  boys  and  girls  of  that  age  are  economi- 
cally of  small  value,  and  in  most  eases  cannot  be 
expected  to  give  much  in  the  way  of  time,  service, 
or  money.  Yet,  since  this  is  the  formative  period, 
there  is  great  danger  that  the  habits  of  sharing, 
helpfulness,  and  cooperation,  if  not  now  fixed, 
will  be  greatly  delayed  or  perhaps  never  formed 
at  all. 

Many  a  leader  who  attempts  to  train  children 
in  giving  falls  into  the  error  of  thinking  quite  as 
much  of  furthering  the  missionary  enterprise  as 
of  developing  the  Christian  character  of  his  boys 
and  girls.  Here  again  we  need  a  clear  realization 
that  the  aim  of  all  religious  education  is  Chris- 
tian character  building.    It  will  then  be  seen  that 

52 


TRAINING  IN  GIVING 

the  lesser  is  included  in  the  greater  and  that  a 
true  Christian  must  be  actively  engaged  in  push- 
ing the  limits  of  the  kingdom  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  Viewing  the  task  of  missionary  education 
in  this  light,  the  teacher  sees  that  training  in 
giving  is  not  a  means,  more  or  less  futile  and 
temporary,  of  obtaining  money  for  missions,  but 
it  is  a  matter  of  real  education  and  of  genuine 
character-forming  value. 

Brotherly  Spirit  in  Giving.  The  appeal  which 
most  surely  reaches  children  is  the  need  of  other 
children.  AYith  primary  pupils,  this  sho.uld  al- 
ways be  concrete;  with  junior  children,  generally 
so.  Naturally  the  first  approach  is  through  chil- 
dren close  at  hand  who  lack  the  food  or  clothing 
or  toys  or  pleasures  v.hich  the  more  fortunate 
child  should  be  taught  to  share  in  a  genuine 
spirit  of  brotherhood.  Such  a  spirit  is  the  only 
true  basis  of  missionary  effort,  but  too  often 
parents  and  teachers  fail  to  instil  it.  Mary,  a 
little  girl  of  my  acquaintance,  was  at  first  de- 
lighted to  pass  on  her  outgrown  school  dresses 
to  the  laundress'  little  daughter,  but  when  Alice 
began  to  get  them  worn  and  soiled,  Mary  begged 
her  mother,  "Please  do  not  give  Alice  any  more 
of  my  dresses ;  she  only  gets  them  dirty  and  torn, 
and  I  do  hate  to  see  them  so  I"  The  child's  spii-it 
had  doubtless  been  wrong  from  the  start ;  she  had 

53 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

not  shared,  but  had  given  from  the  position  of  a 
Lady  Bountiful  and  wished  to  see  appreciation 
of  her  gift  shown  by  its  careful  use.  She  was  not 
helped  to  see  that  Alice  had  no  sturdy  play  suit, 
as  Mary  had,  to  save  the  dainty  school  dress  in 
its  freshness ;  she  was  given  no  conception  of  the 
overworked  mother  who  came  home  at  the  end 
of  a  long  day  too  tired  to  do  more  than  to  feed 
her  hungry  brood  before  she  sought  the  rest  that 
would  fit  her  for  the  next  day's  work.  Neither 
Mary  nor  her  mother  realized  that  the  contribu- 
tion the  laundress  made  to  their  welfare  had  not 
been  recompensed  fully  when  she  was  paid  with 
money,  and  Alice  remained,  to  Mary's  mind,  an 
inhabitant  of  a  distinct  and  vastly  inferior  world. 
Avoiding  Condescension.  Unfortunately,  such  a 
spirit  is  not  uncommon ;  children  look  down  upon 
others  whose  speech,  dress,  or  behavior  is  unlike 
their  own  and  withdraw  from  the  child  whose 
clothes  are  shabby,  or  whose  home  is  less  pre- 
tentious than  theirs.  Situations  of  this  kind 
need  vigorous  but  tactful  handling.  Probably 
the  best  working  principle  is  to  find  some  real 
contribution  which  the  supposedly  inferior  child 
can  make  to  the  common  good.  This  will  give 
him  more  self-respect  and  at  the  same  time  win 
for  him  the  respect  of  the  child  who  thinks  him- 
self superior.     The  most  unpromising  child,  by 

54 


TRAINING  IN  GIVING 

the  law  of  compensation,  has  at  least  one  real 
gift,  one  point  in  which  he  surpasses  all  others, 
and  this  point  the  teacher  must  find.  The  story 
^'At  the  Little  Brown  House,''  in  Everyland, 
December,  1913,  and  "What  Tony  Found  Out," 
in  "Immigration  Picture  Stories''  (see  biblio- 
graphy), are  not  mere  fanciful  sketches  or  pretty 
stories  to  tell  to  children;  they  are  typical  ex- 
amples of  what  may  be  found  in  almost  any  group 
and  offer  the  teacher  a  practical  hint. 

Widening  the  Child's  Responsibility.  Since  the 
junior  child  is  rapidly  enlarging  his  world,  he 
should  be  led  to  enlarge  his  interests  correspond- 
ingly and  to  assume  responsibility  for  the  chil- 
dren Avhom  he  has  never  seen.  Here,  too,  the 
effort  must  be  to  establish  a  true  basis  of  brother- 
hood and  to  avoid  anything  like  patronage.  To 
this  end,  the  likeness  between  children  rather 
than  the  unlikeness  should  be  emphasized.  Non- 
essentials, such  as  color  of  skin,  dress,  and 
speech,  will  not  be  stressed,  for  the  result  will 
be  either  an  interested  curiosity,  or,  if  the  dif- 
ferences are  too  great,  a  repugnance ;  rarely  will 
it  be  a  friendly,  brotherly  feeling.  If,  as  a  matter 
of  information,  it  is  necessary  to  give  such  de- 
tails, they  should  be  so  presented  that  the  child 
puts  himself  in  the  place  of  the  foreigner  and 
knows,  in  some  degree,  at  least,  his  impressions 

55 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

of  the  world  about  him.  Telling  the  story  of  the 
Chinese  girl  who,  when  pressed  to  tell  what  was 
the  strangest  thing  she  saAv  in  America,  said 
with  a  merry  laugh,  ^'Oh,  3^our  funny  little  round 
eyes,"  or  the  story  "When  Tommy  was  a  For- 
eigner,'' in  "Immigration  Picture  Stories,"  are 
types  of  material  that  may  be  used  in  helping 
children  to  see  the  stranger's  point  of  view.  When 
a  feeling  of  understanding  and  sympathy  has 
been  established  in  this  way,  it  will  be  quite  im- 
possible for  the  child  to  give  his  battered  toys  or 
his  worn-out  clothing  in  the  deplorable  spirit  of 
patronage  and  condescension  that  is  often  ap- 
parent. 

Worthy  Giving.  I  sat  in  a  pleasant  playroom 
with  my  friend  one  morning,  A^hen  her  small 
son  laid  a  useless  toy  in  her  lap,  saying,  "That's 
an  old  one;  give  it  to  the  poor  children.''  Very 
quietly,  but  with  wonderful  skill,  the  mother 
led  her  boy  to  see  how  a  child  would  feel  whose 
entire  Christmas  joy  would  probably  consist  of 
the  broken  to}^  The  little  fellow  listened  very 
seriously,  then  chose  one  of  his  most  cherished 
playthings,  and  with  his  mother's  help  carefully 
removed  from  it  every  mark  of  use,  packed  it 
safely,  tied  it  Avith  the  gayest  and  brightest  of 
Christmas  dressings,  and  took  it  to  his  Sunday- 
school  to  be  sent  with  other  gifts.    Later  in  the 

56 


TRAINING  IN  GIVING 

same  winter,  when  a  request  was  made  for  cloth- 
ing, the  mother  suggested  he  might  give  an  over- 
coat he  had  outgrown;  this  was  freshened,  every 
sign  of  soil  removed,  every  tiny  tear  mended,  and 
the  boy  carried  the  coat  to  his  teacher  with  the 
feeling  that  he  was  sharing  with  a  little  brother, 
and  not  that  he  was  giving  "an  old  one"  to  an 
inferior.  In  this  same  spirit  of  sharing,  with 
the  feeling  that  his  gift  is  worthy,  a  child  may 
well  pass  on  to  other  children  his  beloved  toys, 
but  these  should  be  put  in  perfect  condition, 
mended,  freshly  painted,  and  daintily  wrapped. 
The  one  possible  exception  to  absolute  freshness 
would  seem  to  be  books;  if  these  are  worn  and 
cannot  be  rebound,  the  old  covers  may  be  hidden 
under  a  fresh  one  of  paper  or  cloth,  which  may 
be  made  attractive  by  decorating  with  crayola, 
water-color,  or  pasted  pictures.  A  note  to  ac- 
company the  book  might  be  addressed,  "To  the 
one  who  receives  this  book,"  and  could  read  as 
follows : 

"We  have  read  this  book  till  it  is  a  little  worn, 
but  because  we  like  it  so  much,  we  are  sending  it 
to  you,  and  we  hope  you  will  enjoy  it  as  much  as 
we  have. 

"Your  friends, 


Of  quite  another  type  are  the  gifts  of  shape- 

57 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

less  dolls,  Teddy  bears,  and  other  toys,  which 
possess  no  value  or  beauty  to  any  one  but  the 
little  owner,  who  offers  them  in  the  spirit  of 
truest  giving,  because  they  are  the  dearest  treas- 
ure, and  because  only  the  best  is  good  enough  to 
give.  It  sometimes  requires  the  utmost  tact  on 
the  part  of  the  parent  or  teacher  to  meet  this 
kind  of  a  gift,  but  the  generous  impulse  must 
not  be  checked,  and  the  love  that  prompted  the 
sacrifice  must  always  be  recognized. 

In  order  to  foster  a  genuine  interest  on  the 
part  of  the  children,  the  leader  must  always  be 
sure  that  the  giving  or  the  service  meets  a  real 
necessity.  Children  are  quick  to  detect  the  false 
from  the  true,  and  resent  an  attempt  to  enlist 
their  sympathies  in  a  thing  of  fictitious  value, 
but  they  will  respond  joyfully  and  with  a  whole- 
some sense  of  power  and  responsibility  to  the 
call  of  true  need. 

The  Gift  of  Possessions.  Children  must  give  what 
is  their  own,  if  the  giving  is  to  have  the  highest 
value  for  them.  What  does  the  junior  child  pos- 
sess that  he  can  share  with  others?  Nothing,  it 
may  be  thought  at  first,  but  an  investigation  of 
a  boy's  pockets  will  reveal  a  collection  of  balls, 
tops,  marbles,  puzzles,  pencils,  crayons,  and 
erasers;  while  his  corner  of  the  playroom  will 
contain  bats,  mitts,  footballs,  and  games  of  vari- 

58 


TRAINING  IN  GIVING 

ous  sorts.  The  girls'  treasure  box  will  have  dolls 
and  dolls'  dishes  and  furniture,  paint-boxes, 
crayons,  pads,  ribbons,  handkerchiefs,  beads,  and 
bags.  She  will  probably  have,  too,  a  trunk  or  a 
box  full  of  scraps  of  ribbon,  cloth,  and  lace,  from 
which  to  clothe  her  dolls.  Both  boys  and  girls 
will  have  magazines,  children's  papers,  and 
books,  which  are  often  dearly  prized. 

It  is  quite  evident,  then,  that  the  junior  child 
does  not  lack  things  to  give.  Though  these  may 
seem  to  the  adult  to  have  little  intrinsic  value, 
they  are  the  things  in  which  their  owners  are  in- 
terested, and  so  it  may  be  presumed  that  other 
children  will  also  value  them.  No  argument  is 
necessary  to  prove  that  such  giving  of  one's  own 
things  is  vastly  more  important  than  the  giving 
of  things  toward  which  the  sense  of  ownership  is 
less  strong. 

The  Lesson  of  Stewardship.  Many  children  whose 
lives  are  pitifully  barren  of  joy  could  be  made 
blissfully  happy  with  a  tithe  of  the  possessions 
of  boys  and  girls  in  more  favored  circumstances. 
Even  from  a  purely  selfish  standpoint,  parents 
will  find  that  teaching  their  children  to  share 
with  others  less  fortunate  is  productive  of  good; 
for  the  multiplicity  and  the  perfection  of  toys  to- 
day leaves  small  opportunity  for  a  child  to  cul- 
tivate his  imagination  or  to  develop  his  ingenuity 

59 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

or  initiative,  and  in  many  cases,  if  nine  tenths  of 
hig  toys  were  to  be  removed,  he  would  get  more 
solid  enjoyment  out  of  the  remaining  tenth  than 
the  whole  had  ever  yielded.  But  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  appeal  to  such  a  low  motiv^e.  Intelligent 
parents  recognize  the  dawning  of  the  property 
instinct  and  foster  and  develop  it  by  making  the 
child  the  sole  and  undisputed  possessor  of  cer- 
tain things.  If,  at  the  same  time,  the  first  lessons 
in  stewardship  are  imparted,  and  the  child  is 
given  some  sense  of  his  place  and  his  duty  as  a 
unit  in  the  great  world  citizenship,  his  sense  of 
responsibility  grows,  and  cooperation  and  shar- 
ing become  the  normal  and  delightful  expres- 
sions of  his  Christian  life.  So,  in  no  priggish 
or  patronizing  attitude  of  self-appreciation,  but 
with  a  genuine  feeling  of  brotherhood  and  friend- 
ship, the  junior  boy  or  girl  sliould  come  to  share 
his  things  witli  others  who  have  need  of  them. 

The  Gift  of  Money.  Most  junior  children  have 
some  money  which  is  their  own;  this  may  be 
given  them,  or  it  may  be  a  regular  allowance,  or 
it  may  be  earned  by  their  own  efforts.  Whatever 
the  source  from  which  it  comes,  a  very  important 
part  of  a  child's  training  consists  of  learning  the 
value  of  money,  and  the  responsibility  which  its 
possession  brings.  He  may  be  taught  very  early 
that  some  part,  at  least,  of  all  he  has  ought  to  be 

60 


TRAINING  IN  GIVINa 

used  for  the  service  of  Ms  fellows.  Perhaps  there 
is  no  way  in  which  the  child  can  better  learn 
the  value  of.  money  or  more  truly  put  himself 
into  his  gift  than  by  earning  the  money  himself. 
There  are  tasks  in  every  home  which  the  child 
should  be  taught  to  perform  cheerfully  and  well 
with  no  thought  of  remuneration,  as  his  contribu- 
tion to  the  welfare  of  the  family  group.  As  he 
grows  in  years  and  discretion,  these  duties  may 
be  broadened  to  take  on,  first,  a  local,  and  then 
a  national  and  a  world-wide  aspect.  But  there 
are  other  tasks,  not  so  distinctly  belonging  to  a 
child,  yet  not  beyond  his  strength,  w^hich  he  may 
perform  and  for  which  he  may  receive  a  money 
payment.  If  this  be  fixed  on  a  proper  basis, 
^'aluable  lessons  in  economics  and  in  true  social 
living  may  be  given  so  naturally  but  so  impres- 
sively that  no  boy  or  girl  will  ever  outgrow  them. 
If  through  instruction  and  suggestion  the  child 
is  led  to  use  his  money  according  to  Christian 
principles,  he  should  come  naturally  to  regard  it 
as  just  one  more  gift  entrusted  to  him  by  God 
to  be  used  for  and  shared  with  his  fellows. 

The  Gift  of  Time  and  Service.  Time  and  service 
are  two  more  things  which  children  may  give  to 
others,  and  though  the  service  be  small,  it  may 
be  true  service  while  it  lasts.  It  is  hard  to  im- 
agine a  child  who  cannot  find  some  way  of  help- 

61 


MISSIONAEY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

ing.  It  may  be  only  in  keeping  his  own  yard 
clean  and  attractive  and  seeing  that  the  street 
in  front  of  his  own  door  is  free  frorg  litter,  but  if 
he  does  it  with  the  desire  to  make  the  world  a 
better  place  for  God's  big  family  to  enjoy,  who 
shall  dare  to  say  the  deed  is  not  missionary? 

Most  children  in  country  or  suburban  homes 
may  have  a  bit  of  ground  for  a  garden  or  flower- 
bed, or,  at  least,  they  may  be  allowed  to  have  a 
bush,  a  vine,  or  a  plant  for  their  own.  Then  they 
may  be  taught  to  bring  the  best  of  the  produce 
for  the  pleasure  or  service  of  others,  as  did  the 
Hebrews  of  old.  The  flowers  that  are  sent  to 
cheer  a  sick  friend  or  to  decorate  the  church  or 
the  church  schoolrooms,  the  apples  or  grapes 
that  go  to  tempt  an  invalid's  appetite,  the  vege- 
tables that  fill  a  hungry  little  neighbor's  mouth 
will  be  enjoyed  most  of  all,  and  the  deed  of 
thoughtfulness  will  knit  the  bond  of  brother- 
hood all  the  closer.  Even  the  child  dwelling  in 
the  tiniest  city  apartment  need  not  be  wholly  de- 
prived of  such  sharing;  any  one  can  grow  an 
eggshell  farm  as  described  in  Things  to  Make,  or 
a  bowl  of  bulbs,  to  be  taken  to  a  hospital  or  a 
shut-in  or  an  old  people's  home. 

Encouraging  the  Humble  Giver.  In  making  plans 
for  children's  giving,  the  teacher  must  be  careful 
that  the  method  chosen  permits  of  no  comparison 


TRAINING  IN  GIVING 

between  the  gifts  of  the  rich  and  the  poor  and 
that  pupils  do  not  value  a  gift  by  its  size.  Many 
a  poor  child  has  lost  the  joy  of  giving,  because 
he  shrank  from  placing  his  smaller  offering  along- 
side that  of  his  richer  classmate.  Yet  no  one 
can  tell  what  the  result  of  even  a  very  humble 
gift  may  be.  A  junior  superintendent,  planning 
with  her  department  the  Thanksgiving  dinners 
that  were  to  be  sent  to  a  city  mission,  said,  as  she 
displayed  a  bundle  of  kindling,  "Any  boy  or  girl 
may  bring  this,  and  you  know  people  need  kin- 
dling to  start  the  dinner  fire,  quite  as  much  as 
they  need  food."  On  the  appointed  day  a  shab- 
bily dressed  little  boy  laid  on  one  of  the  baskets 
a  bundle  of  sticks  which  he  had  cut  from  a  soap 
box,  secured  from  the  grocery  store.  She  received 
it  smilingly  and  sent  it  with  the  rest  of  the 
things.  The  city  pastor,  whose  people  were  to 
distribute  the  dinners,  told  the  story  in  his  ser- 
mon, and  at  the  close  a  Avealthy  parishioner,  made 
to  think  by  the  humble  offering,  laid  on  each  of 
the  twenty-four  baskets  an  order  for  one  hundred 
pounds  of  coal. 

The  Gift  of  Sacrifice.  It  is  not  the  size  of  the  gift 
that  counts ;  it  is  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  given. 
A  junior  boy,  eager  to  share  in  the  contribution 
of  his  class  to  a  needy  school,  found  it  quite  im- 
possible to  get  any  money,  but  discovered  he  could 

63 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

redeem  the  coupons  in  which  the  laundry  soap 
was  wrapped,  and  no  bond-holder  ever  treasured 
his  wealth  more  carefully.  It  required  much 
pondering  before  he  finally  decided  on  a  splendid 
*'hill-climber''  engine,  which  he  carried  in  tri- 
umph to  his  teacher.  When  she  had  admired  its 
gorgeous  red  paint,  its  size,  and  its  speed,  he 
carefully  repacked  it,  saying  with  deep  convic- 
tion, as  he  tied  the  last  knot,  ^'Gee!  It's  a  lucky 
kid  that  gets  that  engine !"  and  the  teacher  knew 
that  no  one  had  given  more  truly  than  this  child 
who  had  not  a  penny  to  spend. 

In  a  similar  spirit  two  boys  who  had  been 
promised  a  trip  to  the  circus  last  winter  gave 
it  up,  in  order  that  the  price  of  the  tickets  might 
go  to  feed  the  starving  Armenians;  a  little  girl 
who  had  eagerly  looked  forward  to  her  eleventh 
birthday  and  its  party  gave  what  the  party  was 
to  have  cost ;  another  child,  to  Avhom  parties  and 
circuses  were  quite  impossible,  went  without 
sugar  on  her  breakfast  cereal  for  a  month,  that 
she  too  might  have  a  share  in  helping  the  little 
brothers  and  sisters  across  the  AA^ater.  Such 
sharing  is  vital  and  real  and  blesses  him  who 
gives  as  well  as  him  who  takes. 

The  denominational  home  and  foreign  mis- 
sion boards  will  usually  suggest  articles  which 
boys  and  girls  can  make  and  will  give  the  ad- 

64 


TRAINING  IN  GIVING 

dress  of  a  mission  school  where  the  gifts  may 
be  sent. 

The  World's  Sunday  School  Association,  1 
Madison  Avenue,  New  York  City,  through  its 
surplus  material  department  also  suggests  lists 
of  articles  to  make  and  mission  stations  where 
they  may  be  sent. 

The  Personal  Relation  in  Sharing.  Whenever  it  is 
possible,  a  personal  relation  should  be  estab- 
lished between  the  two  parties  to  the  sharing, 
as  this  makes  the  feeling  of  brotherhood  more 
genuine.  "This  can  never  be  done  till  the  germ 
theory  is  exploded!''  exclaim  teachers  who  have 
met  with  decided  refusals  from  parents  to  allow 
their  children  to  go  into  homes  unknown  to  them. 
All  care  and  precaution  must  be  exercised  in 
guarding  children  against  any  possible  harm, 
and  in  many  cases  actual  entrance  to  the  homes 
of  families  in  need  might  not  be  desirable.  But 
even  the  contact  possible  in  the  church  school  is 
often  unwelcome,  and  children  are  too  frequently 
taught,  or  at  least  encouraged,  to  keep  away  from 
claBsmates  of  a  lower  social  order.  Parents  need 
to  remind  themselves  that  dirt  is  not  deadly  and 
that  many  germs  of  the  soul  are  more  to  be 
feared  than  germs  of  the  body.  Selfishness  is 
quite  as  insidious  and  fearsome  as  many  a  physi- 
cal disease,  and  snobbishness  is  more  blemishing 

65 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

and  hateful  than  any  blight  a  child  is  likely  to 
meet  in  his  endeavors  to  be  a  brother.  If  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  ever  to  be  established,  our 
children  must  be  taught  to  live  the  ideals  of 
Christian  equality. 


u 


CHAPTER    V 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  THROUGH 
PLAY 

The  Importance  of  Play.  Play,  being  the  most 
common  and  characteristic  activity  in  which 
children  engage,  has  naturally  received  much 
thought  and  study  from  psychologists  and  edu- 
cators. They  differ  widely  in  their  theories,  but 
agree  on  the  point  that  play  is  an  important 
factor  in  the  life  of  the  child  and  merits  deeper 
research  than  has  yet  been  given  it.  Though  the 
last  word  has  not  been  said  on  the  subject,  play 
is  no  longer  considered  a  necessary  evil,  to  be 
tolerated  for  a  time  and  to  be  supplanted  as  soon 
as  possible  with  some  more  serious  activity;  it 
is  seen  to  be  a  thing  of  vital  importance  in  educa- 
tion. That  modern  educators  are  coming  more 
and  more  to  take  this  position  is  proved  by  the 
increasing  number  of  playgrounds  and  play 
centers,  even  of  play  schools,  as  well  as  hj  the 
ever-growing  number  of  books  on  the  subject. 

The  Play  Instinct.  A  discussion  of  the  theories 
advanced  or  a  resume  of  the  books  written  on 
the  different  aspects  of  play  does  not  come  within 

67 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

the  scope  of  this  chapter.  Even  a  list  of  books 
on  the  subject  would  take  too  much  space.  Those 
who  are  interested  in  further  study  along  this 
line  will  find  in  almost  any  volume  on  psychology 
or  child  study  a  chapter  devoted  to  play,  with 
references  to  special  studies,  books,  and  maga- 
zine articles  which  will  furnish  a  guide  to  such 
research  as  one  may  wish  to  take  up.  For  ex- 
ample, Fundamentals  of  Childhood,  by  E.  A. 
Kirkpatrick,  contains,  on  pages  163  and  164,  ref- 
erences to  books  and  articles  about  play.  (See 
bibliography.)  While  these  books  are  written 
from  the  secular  standpoint,  they  are  of  value  to 
the  religious  educator  also.  The  child,  it  must 
be  remembered,  is  not  an  active,  normal,  growing 
boy  or  girl  six  days  in  the  week,  and  a  little  saint 
on  the  seventh ;  the  same  laws  govern  his  develop- 
ment on  Sunday  as  on  other  days.  Religious  edu- 
cation must  regard  the  child  as  an  unfolding 
whole  and  not  seek  to  develop  one  side  of  his 
nature  without  thought  of  the  other  sides.  It 
is  the  aim  of  this  chapter  to  suggest  some  ways 
in  which  the  play  instinct  can  be  utilized  in  that 
one  phase  of  religious  education  which  we  term 
missionary. 

The  Psychology  of  Imitation.  Whatever  theories 
may  be  held  as  to  why  children  play  or  what 
results  play  has  upon  them,  it  seems  quite  evi- 

68 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  PLAY 

dent  that  the  imitative  games  of  childhood  come 
through  the  child's  effort  to  enlarge  his  experi- 
ence. When  he  imitates  the  cat  curled  up  before 
the  fire,  he  is  trying  to  find  out  Avhat  it  feels 
like  to  be  a  cat.  He  runs  about  waving  his  arms 
and  says,  ^^I'm  flying;  I'm  a  bird,"  because  he 
is  trying  to  understand  how  it  would  feel  to  be 
a  bird.  While  such  plays  are  markedly  present 
before  the  age  of  ten,  they  by  no  means  cease 
when  that  point  is  reached,  and  the  junior  child 
still  tries  to  enlarge  his  experience  through  his 
imagination — though  less  openly,  since  dawning 
self-consciousness  makes  him  fear  the  laughter 
of  his  elders.  Many  a  grown-up  can  vividly  recall 
long  periods  of  time  in  childhood  when  the  outer 
commonplace  life  was  far  less  real  than  the  inner 
dream  life,  w^hich  had  not  yet  faded  "into  the 
light  of  common  day."  One  was,  by  turns, 
prince,  robber  chief,  knight,  or  favorite  story- 
book character,  and  entered  into  the  joys  and 
sorrows  of  these  unseen  friends  with  a  sympathy 
quite  as  keen  as  that  aroused  for  the  flesh-and- 
blood  playmates  close  at  hand. 

Impersonation  and  Missionary  Education.  Herein 
lies  a  fine  opportunity,  which  the  junior  teacher 
must  be  quick  to  seize.  Impersonation  may  be- 
come the  most  effective  kind  of  missionary  teach- 
ing; for,  to  the  child,  the  only  real  world  is  the 

69 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

world  of  play.  He  is  ever  searching  for  that 
which,  to  him,  is  real,  and  if  the  lesson  he  is  to 
learn  can  come  to  him  in  the  form  of  play,  it 
comes  invested  with  meaning  that  is  bound  to 
call  forth  a  worth-w^hile  response.  Moreover, 
in  taking  the  part  of  another  person  whom  he 
probably  has  never  seen,  he  enters,  to  a  far  higher 
degree  than  adults  sometimes  think,  into  the 
very  life  and  experiences  of  that  person;  his  un- 
derstanding of  the  other's  situation  is  deepened, 
and  his  own  sympathies  quickened ;  his  interests 
are  widened;  his  information  increased — and  so 
naturally  that  the  process  is  almost,  if  not  quite, 
unconscious. 

A  Missionary  Demonstration.  To  illustrate,  two 
little  girls,  coached  by  their  leader,  dressed  as 
Chinese  girls  and  entered  a  mission  band  meet- 
ing one  day,  just  as  the  members  w^ere  discussing 
what  they  should  do  wdth  their  funds.  The  little 
guests  from  the  Orient  begged  that  the  money 
might  be  sent  to  China  to  show  their  sisters 
"the  Jesus  way."  The  simple  bit  of  acting  meant 
far  more  than  acquiring  the  knowledge  neces- 
sary to  answ^er  the  questions  of  the  band;  the 
girls  had  entered  into  the  feelings  of  the  Chinese 
children,  and  they  w^orked  harder  afterwards  to 
swell  the  missionary  fund. 

To  take  another  illustration,  tw^o  girls  reared 

70 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  PLAY 

in  Christian  homes  and  taking  their  blessings 
as  a  matter  of  course  were  trained  to  give  a 
simple  demonstration  of  Japanese  worship.  A 
poor  mother  leading  her  sick  child  by  the  hand 
passed  along  the  road  and  paused  before  a  shrine 
of  Buddha.  Kneeling  before  the  stupid-looking 
brass  image,  both  mother  and  child  bowed  their 
heads  three  times  to  the  ground,  while  the  mother 
repeated  prayers ;  then  the  mother  passed  her  fin- 
gers over  the  god's  eyes  and  repeatedly  rubbed 
the  child's  eyes.  The  contrast  between  the 
worship  of  this  lifeless  image  and  the  worship 
in  their  own  dear  church  of  the  God  whom  the 
children  had  been  taught  to  love  was  heightened 
by  the  entrance  of  a  missionary,  who  told  the 
poor  mother  how  to  find  the  better  way.  The 
close  of  the  demonstration  thus  left  on  the  minds 
of  the  children  who  witnessed  it  an  iflea  of  what 
they  might  and  should  do  to  help,  even  while  it 
gave  them  some  conception  of  foreign  idol  wor- 
ship. The  quiet,  almost  reverent  hush  in  which 
it  was  received  showed  what  an  impression  the 
teaching  had  made. 

The  Spirit  of  the  Performance.  Such  impersona- 
tions and  demonstrations  require  little  time  to 
give,  they  are  short,  simple  and  easily  learned, 
and  they  require  very  little  rehearsing  and  the 
simplest  of  accessories  and  costumes,  but  when 

71 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

they  are  given  in  the  right  spirit,  the  effect  is  so 
strong  as  to  be  quite  out  of  proportion  to  the 
effort  required  to  produce  them.  It  is  the  spirit 
of  the  performance  which  is  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance. Perhaps  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say 
the  spirit  of  the  instructor,  for  children  are 
quick  to  fall  into  the  mood  of  the  teacher,  and 
to  reflect  the  attitude  which  they  find  in  him,  no 
matter  what  it  may  be.  There  should  never  be 
any  attempt  to  produce  anything  like  a  finished 
theatrical  performance;  fine  acting  is  not  so  im- 
portant as  giving  the  audience  the  message  of 
the  story.  When  the  participants  are  animated 
by  the  desire  to  give  this,  they  can  throw  them- 
selves completely  into  the  spirit  of  the  play  and 
overcome  almost  any  difficulty. 

With  children  of  the  junior  age,  the  right 
spirit  in  acting  comes  all  the  more  easily,  as  they 
are  not  yet  too  self-conscious  to  throw  themselves 
heartily  into  the  play.  This  is  one  reason  why 
accessories  and  costumes  may  be — indeed,  should 
be — very  simple.  Such  simplicity  leaves  some- 
thing to  the  imagination  and  detracts  nothing 
from  the  message  of  the  play. 

Missionary  Plays  and  Pageants.  Somewhat  more 
elaborate  than  the  missionary  demonstrations 
already  mentioned  are  the  missionary  dramas, 
which  are  planned  on  a  larger  scale  and  require 

72 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  PLAY 

more  time  in  production  and  more  scenery.  A 
list  of  such  dramas  will  be  found  in  the  bibliog- 
raphy. Still  more  elaborate  are  the  pageants, 
some  of  which  also  are  listed  in  the  bibliography. 
The  latter  generally  require  a  larger  number  of 
people  as  participants  and  would  in  many  cases 
be  too  difficult  to  be  carried  out  in  entirety  by 
a  junior  department;  yet  they  would  serve  as  a 
splendid  means  of  bringing  a  whole  church  school 
together  on  a  single  piece  of  work  and  might  be 
of  the  greatest  missionary  and  religious  educa- 
tional value. 

Games  of  Other  Lands.  Less  formal  play  than 
has  been  described  thus  far  is  found  in  the  games 
of  other  lands  which  children  may  play  with 
genuine  interest  and  liking  and — better  still — 
with  an  increased  respect  and  sympathy  for  the 
boys  and  girls  from  whom  they  came.  One  class 
of  boys,  learning  to  play  Chinese  games  for  a 
local  missionary  exposition,  came  to  have  a  de- 
cidedly greater  respect  for  the  Chinese  after  dis- 
covering how  much  strength  it  required  to  play 
"man  wheel,''  while  the  girls  delighted  in  the 
imaginative  element  as  well  as  in  the  fun  of 
"frog  in  the  well,"  which  was  henceforth  their 
favorite  game.  There  can  be  little  question  that 
both  boys  and  girls  felt  as  if  the  Chinese  chil- 
dren wei^e  more  real,  more  truly  their  brothers 

73 


MISSIOKARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

and  sisters,  when  they  had  learned  to  play  these 
games — a  result  that  could  not  have  been  reached 
as  easily  and  surely  in  any  other  way.  The  en- 
richment of  a  child's  life  through  the  teaching 
of  new  games  is  worth  while  in  itself,  but  when 
to  this  is  added  a  deepened  sympathy  with  other 
children,  a  keener  feeling  of  their  worth,  and 
a  growing  feeling  of  brotherhood,  surely  the 
value  of  learning  the  world's  games  strikes  far 
below  the  visible  surface.  Childreri  At  Play  in 
Many  Lands  (see  bibliography),  by  Katharine 
Stanley  Hall,  contains  descriptions  of  games 
from  many  countries,  well  illustrated.  Every- 
land  has  from  time  to  time  contained  descriptions 
of  games,  and  many  mission  boards  publish 
leaflets  on  the  games  and  plays  of  children  of 
other  lands. 

Use  of  Demonstrations.  All  of  the  play  material 
described  may  be  used  in  various  programs,  as 
need  may  indicate.  The  shorter  demonstrations 
may  find  occasional  place  in  the  opening  exercises 
of  the  junior  department  and  greatly  strengthen 
the  teaching  there.  As  an  illustration,  if  special 
attention  is  being  given  to  Japanese  missions,  the 
superintendent  may  introduce  *^a  street  greeting^' 
by  saying,  "Perhaps  you  would  like  to  know 
how  gentlemen  say  ^Good  morning!'  in  Japan. 
Fred  and  Harry  will  show  us."  When  the  demon- 

74 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  PLAY 

strati  on  is  finished  (it  requires  about  three 
minutes),  a  reference  to  our  own  quick  greet- 
ing and  the  not  unnatural  conclusion  on  the  part 
of  the  Japanese  that  we  are  rude  and  ill-bred 
may  help  the  children  to  see  the  other  side  of 
the  matter  and  make  them  less  apt  to  laugh  at 
the  Japanese. 

Another  help  in  seeing  themselves  as  others 
see  them  may  be  given  the  children  by  using  in 
connection  with  a  study  of  Chinese  missions  one 
of  the  brief  sketches  contained  in  the  March, 
1914,  number  of  Every  land  (volume  5,  number 
2),  ^^Which  is  Topsy-Turvy  Land?"  or  'HVho  is 
Queer?"  The  pretty  story,  "Backs  and  Fronts" 
in  Everylandj  February,  1916,  could  easily  be 
dramatized  and  would  help  to  impress  the  like- 
ness of  mother-love  everywhere,  even  while  it 
showed  how  ideas  are  changing  in  China.  Other 
demonstrations,  too  long  for  opening  exercises 
or  not  entirely  suited  to  the  spirit  of  worship 
which  should  characterize  such  a  program,  may 
be  used  in  group  meetings  or  at  socials,  or  they 
may  form  part  of  the  program  for  an  evening's 
entertainment.  Such  a  program  could  well  be 
the  climax  of  a  course  of  study  on  a  missionary 
topic.  Certainly  the  larger  plays  should  never 
be  gi\%n  except  when  preceded  by  such  study,  in 
order  that  the  participants  may  possess  the  back- 

75 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OP  JUNIORS 

ground  that  will  give  their  work  color,  atmos- 
phere^ and  spirit. 

Use  of  Pageants  and  Games.  Pageants  and  exposi- 
tions may  be  as  simple  or  as  elaborate  as  one  may 
desire  and  may  include  the  work  of  several  coun- 
tries or  be  confined  to  that  of  a  single  land ;  they 
make  excellent  features  to  give  in  connection 
with  a  yearly  Sunday-school  exhibit,  a  mission- 
ary rally,  or  as  the  culmination  of  some  special 
effort  or  study.  The  games  may  become  an  enter- 
taining as  w^ell  as  an  educational  feature  of  an 
exposition  program;  they  may  be  played  at 
socials;  if  the  mission  band  program  includes 
a  few  minutes  for  recreation,  they  may  be  used 
then.  Perhaps  it  is  well  to  suggest  here  that  it 
is  not  wise  to  use  the  word  "missionary''  too 
frequently  in  connection  with  juniors,  as  it  often 
conveys  quite  the  wrong  idea  to  them;  let  them 
play  the  games  and  enjoy  the  dramatic  side  of 
the  work,  because  "our  friends  in  China  like 
this,"  or  because  "our  Japanese  cousins  think 
this  is  a  great  game." 

Suggestions  Concerning  Costumes.  It  has  already 
been  suggested  that  too  great  stress  should  not 
be  put  on  costumes  and  accessories.  This  does 
not  mean  that  such  matters  should  be  entirely 
disregarded.  Costumes  add  color  and  reality, 
and  help  to  complete  the  picture  of  life  in  other 

76 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  PLAY 

lands.  They  can  be  rented  from  the  Missionary 
Education  Movement,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New 
York ;  some  of  tlie  church  boards  also  have  them 
for  rent.  The  expense  is  sometimes  a  matter  to 
be  considered,  and  in  most  cases  the  participants 
who  make  or  devise  their  own  costumes  gain 
more  benefit  from  the  work  than  if  they  rent  them 
ready  made.  The  same  thing  may  be  said  con- 
cerning scenery.  It  is  surprising  what  an  in- 
genious leader  and  an  enthusiastic  group  of  boys 
and  girls  can  accomplish  with  very  simple 
materials.  A  few  yards  of  cheap  calico,  gingham, 
unbleached  muslin,  or  cheesecloth,  and  a  few 
small  cans  of  house  paint  properly  used  will  pro- 
duce most  effective  costumes,  while  kindergarten 
beads,  so  easily  obtained,  give  an  Oriental  touch 
to  many  costumes.  If  beads  are  not  at  hand, 
macaroni  broken  in  proper  lengths  and  colored 
may  be  used  instead;  or  very  hot  salt  may  be 
stirred  into  a  thick  paste  of  cornstarch  and 
water,  till  a  stiff  dough  is  formed.  This  may  be 
given  the  desired  color  with  candy  dye  and  then 
be  kneaded  and  shaped  into  beads,  which  are 
strung  on  a  long  hatpin  and  left  to  dry.  The 
sariy  the  common  costume  of  the  Hindu  woman, 
is  a  strip  of  cloth  about  six  yards  in  length  wound 
round  and  round  the  body.  The  upper  part  of 
the  body  is  covered  with  a  simple  waist,  and  the 

77 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

end  of  the  sari  is  drawn  up  over  the  head  and 
pinned,  or  held  with  the  hand.  For  this,  striped 
or  small-figured  calico  is  all  that  is  needed. 
Directions  for  making  Chinese  costumes  are  to 
be  found  in  Everyland,  March,  1914,  while  the 
issue  for  September,  1914,  gives  full  directions 
for  Indian  costumes.  The  Japanese  costume  is 
too  familiar  to  require  description  and  can  usu- 
ally be  improvised  by  using  an  ordinary  kimono 
and  sash.  The  South  American  Paper  Dolls  in 
the  first  six  numbers  of  Everyland  for  1917  give 
valuable  hints  for  costumes  of  the  Indians  in 
that  continent.  The  last  chapter  in  Children  At 
Play  in  Many  Lands  gives  directions  for  making 
many  costumes. 

Finding  out  what  people  in  other  lands  wear 
is  a  good  subject  of  investigation  for  the  junior 
boy  or  girl;  once  they  have  learned  this  from 
books,  pictures,  encyclopedias,  and  other  helps 
in  the  home  or  the  public  library,  their  ingenuity 
may  be  exercised  to  making  them  out  of  the 
material  at  hand.  In  some  cases  it  may  be  quite 
possible  to  get  genuine  articles  of  clothing  from 
mission  stations  by  arranging  with  the  teachers 
there.  Whether  the  costumes  are  made  in  the 
home  school  or  are  bought,  it  is  a  wise  plan  to 
pack  them  neatly  in  boxes  properly  labeled  on 
the  outside,  and  to  preserve  them  for  future  use. 

78 


EDUCATION  THROUGH  PLAY 

Occasions  when  they  will  be  needed  are  con- 
stantly arising,  and  lending  or  renting  costumes 
to  another  and  perhaps  weaker  school  is  often 
a  real  service,  so  that  it  is  quite  possible  to  make 
not  only  the  preparation  and  the  use  of  the  cos- 
tumes but  also  their  disposition  a  matter  of 
brotherhood  and  sharing. 


79 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE   MATERIALS  OF  MISSIONARY 
EDUCATION 

Three  Phases  of  Missionary  Education.  No  ques- 
tion touching  missionary  education  should  re- 
ceive more  thoughtful  consideration  than  that  of 
the  material  to  be  employed.  ^^Where  can  I  get 
the  books?"  is  the  first  query  of  the  teacher  who 
overlooks  the  fact  that  missionary  education  has 
at  least  three  phases — giving  information,  guid- 
ing activities,  and  developing  attitudes — though 
the  three  are  too  closely  related  to  be  separated 
except  for  convenience  in  discussion. 

The  Vital  Element  in  Missionary  Teaching.  Sug- 
gestions for  guiding  the  various  activities  of 
children  into  paths  of  service  are  contained  in 
other  chapters  of  this  manual,  and  two  ways  of 
imparting  information  are  given  in  the  chapters 
on  story-telling  and  children's  reading.  But  such 
methods,  while  good  as  far  as  they  go,  are  much 
too  informal  and  incidental  to  be  relied  upon 
for  developing  a  true  spirit  of  world  brotherhood 
that  shall  manifest  itself  as  the  normal  expres- 
sion of  every  Christian  life.     The  teaching  that 

80 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

results  in  such  an  attitude  must  be  an  ingrained 
and  integral  part  of  religious  education ;  its  vital 
and  animating  principle  must  spring  from  a  love 
for  the  common  Father  which  recognizes  the 
worth  and  the  needs  of  all  his  sons. 

Adapting  Instruction  to  Life.  The  importance  of 
suiting  the  teaching  of  the  church  school  to  the 
needs  of  the  child  must  again  be  emphasized. 
Lessons  that  do  not  help  him  in  his  daily  living 
have  little  worth;  religious  instruction  must 
guide  the  growing  Christian  in  his  adjustments 
to  his  world,  which  must  gradually  extend  far 
beyond  the  immediate  circle  till  it  includes  the 
whole  world  of  God's  people.  The  teacher  who 
has  taught  his  pupils  to  make  these  adjustments 
according  to  right  principles  has  given  the  best 
missionary  as  well  as  the  best  religious  training. 
A  Christian's  missionary  attitude  means  just 
his  whole  attitude  of  personal  responsibility  and 
loving  service,  which,  as  a  son  of  God,  he  owes  to 
all  men  everywhere. 

The  Bible  and  the  Lives  of  Missionaries.  It  will  not 
be  necessary,  then,  to  go  far  afield  in  search  of 
material,  since  most  of  the  lessons  are  chosen 
from  the  great  text-book  of  missions,  the  Bible. 
In  it  are  found  the  clearest  enunciations  of  the 
principles  of  the  kingdom  which  Jesus  came  to 
found;  in  it  are  set  up  the  ideals  of  universal 

81 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

brotherhood  and  world-wide  helpfulness;  from 
it  comes  the  inspiration  and  faith  and  courage 
which  the  Christian  must  have.  The  fullness  of 
its  missionary  message  has  not  yet  been  meas- 
ured, nor  its  richness  exhausted.  It  must  always 
be  the  chief  source  of  missionary  material ;  yet 
even  while  the  teacher  turns  again  and  again 
to  its  boundless  treasure,  he  will  remember  that 
the  work  of  the  servants  of  God  was  not  finished 
with  the  Book  of  Acts,  and  he  will  frequently 
draw  from  the  wealth  of  material  found  in  the 
lives  of  all  the  missionaries  since  Paul  who  have 
labored  and  sacrificed  and  triumphed  in  the  ser- 
vice of  their  Master.  Their  deeds  will  be  re- 
counted again  and  again,  till  they  become  a  part 
of  the  equipment  of  all  our  boys  and  girls,  a 
challenge  and  an  inspiration  to  noble  effort  and 
unselfish  service. 

The  Spirit  of  the  Teacher.  But  whatever  material 
may  be  used,  a  potent  factor  not  to  be  overlooked 
is  the  spirit  of  the  teacher  himself;  if  he  holds 
a  deep  personal  conviction  regarding  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise,  if  he  actively  believes  in  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  he  is  sure  to  teach  missions 
whether  he  knows  it  or  not.  Between  such  vital 
teaching  as  this  and  giving  a  quarterly  lesson 
as  an  extra  or  a  monthly  fifteen-minute  talk,  or 
setting  aside  five  minutes  a  Sunday  for  a  special 

82 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

consideration  of  the  subject,  there  can  be  no  com- 
parison. 

Imagine  cultivating  national  loyalty  in  Ameri- 
cans by  delivering  to  boys  and  girls  on  stated 
occasions  more  or  less  interesting  talks  on 
patriotism!  How  soon  children  would  come  to 
hate  the  sound  of  the  word !  On  the  other  hand 
a  truly  patriotic  teacher  would  fill  every  lesson, 
whether  in  history  or  civics  or  literature,  with 
so  much  national  spirit  that  his  pupils  could 
not  fail  to  catch  the  contagion  and  go  out  from 
his  tutelage  patriots  in  the  truest  sense.  In  like 
manner  the  teacher  whose  heart  glows  with  zeal 
and  who  feels  himself  a  brother  to  all  the  world 
puts  into  his  teaching  such  a  vital  and  natural 
missionary  quality  that  his  pupils  are  bound  to 
catch  fire  from  his  flaming  spirit.  Sometimes  his 
teaching  will  be  directly  missionary;  sometimes 
the  lesson  material  will  be  missionary  by  force 
of  contrast;  often  the  illustrations  will  be  sup- 
plied from  missionary  sources;  oftener  still  there 
may  be  no  direct  reference  to  missions  as  a  sub- 
ject, but  the  principle  of  service  will  be  the  very 
warp  and  woof  of  the  lesson.  When  missionary 
teaching  becomes  as  ingrained  as  this,  when  it  is 
a  natural,  vital,  integral  part  of  all  religious  edu- 
cation, then  we  may  find  otir  boys  and  girls  be- 
coming truly  educated  along  missionary  lines. 

83 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

Forming  Attitudes.  But  the  formation  of  a 
child's  attitudes  is  also  a  most  important  part 
of  his  education,  and  it  must  not  be  supposed  that 
attitudes  can  be  gained  entirely  through  informa- 
tion or  by  study.  How,  for  example,  does  a  child 
learn  to  be  polite?  Not,  it  will  be  agreed,  by 
becoming  familiar  with  a  book  of  etiquette ;  good 
manners  so  learned  are  the  veneer  that,  under 
stress  and  strain,  is  bound  to  crack  and  peel  and 
show  the  cheaper  stuff  beneath.  It  is  by  constant 
adjustments  to  actual  situations  that  a  child 
learns  politeness,  and  how  often  the  necessity 
arises  for  making  these  adjustments  any  parent 
or  teacher  is  w^ell  aware.  Every  incident  of  daily 
life  demands  some  response  from  the  child;  in 
making  it  he  comes  to  assume  a  given  attitude 
to  a  given  situation.  Association  and  imitation, 
suggestion  and  instruction,  and  the  spirit  in 
which  these  are  given  help  to  determine  what  the 
response  shall  be,  but  they  become  a  part  of  the 
child  and  enter  into  his  life  only  as  he  actually 
makes  the  response  himself.  Thus,  little  by  little, 
taught  through  daily  experience,  the  child  ac- 
quires a  habit  of  polite  behavior,  and  courteous 
reactions  become  instinctive,  until  after  a  time 
he  not  only  acts  politely  but  feels  polite;  he  has 
become  a  social  being. 

Forming  the  Missionary  Attitude.  The  mission- 
84 


MATEKIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

ary  attitude  must  be  learned  in  the  same  way. 
In  fact,  it  is  not  a  fanciful  exaggeration  to  say 
that  it  is  really  an  extension  of  good  manners, 
for,  in  the  last  analysis,  politeness  is  based  on 
good-will.  It  arises  from  a  recognition  of  an- 
other's worth;  it  is  the  result  of  loving  one's 
brother  as  oneself;  it  is  enlarging  the  house  of 
friendship  to  take  in  all  the  members  of  the 
Father's  family  as  brothers.  Teaching  children 
to  assume  this  attitude  is  missionary  education 
of  the  finest  sort ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
an  attitude  is  a  response  to  a  situation.  Most 
of  the  situations  in  a  child's  life  arise  from  his 
human  contacts,  but  there  are  few  children  who 
do  not  also  have  some  contact  with  the  animal 
world,  and  even  a  city  child  does  not  entirely 
lack  contacts  with  the  world  of  nature.  All  of 
these  contacts  are  included  in  the  term  ^^ situa- 
tions/^ and  it  is  evident  that  w^hen  the  normal 
response  to  these  has  become  democratic,  right. 
Christian,  the  end  of  religious  and  missionary 
education  is  won.  Parents  and  teachers  alike 
have  failed  to  realize  the  responsibility  and  the 
opportunity  for  guiding  and  controlling  these  re- 
sponses. No  adequate  consideration  has  yet  been 
given  the  subject,  but  much  valuable  work  in 
this  direction  will  doubtless  be  accomplished  in 
the  near  future.    Only  a  few  hints  are  here  given, 

85 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

in  the  hope  that  teachers  may  see  the  possibility 
of  such  study  and  undertake  it  seriously. 

Contacts  of  Juniors  with  the  World.  The  begin- 
ning must  be  made  by  listing  the  situations  of 
junior  children,  and  then  must  follow  a  careful 
study  of  these  to  determine  how  all  the  contacts 
of  daily  life  may  be  socialized  and  made  Chris- 
tian. The  situations  of  city  and  country  chil- 
dren and  of  boys  and  girls  will  vary  somewhat, 
but  the  educational  value  is  about  the  same. 
How  rich  are  the  opportunities  for  teaching 
Christian  response  may  be  seen  by  referring  to 
the  following  list,  incomplete  and  hasty  as  it  is. 
It  gives  the  ordinary  contacts  of  a  boy  or  a  girl 
of  junior  age  living  in  the  country  one  hundred 
miles  from  a  city : 
In  the  home; 

Father 

Mother 

Brother 

Sister 

The  farm  hand 

Occasional  guests 

In  the  community ; 

Church  school  and  day-school  teachers  and  pupils 

Friends 

Townsmen 

"Summer  people"  and  students  home  for  vacation 

Tramps 

86 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

With  the  civic  order ; 
Rural  free  mail  carrier 
Fire  warden 
Game  and  fish  warden 
Road  supervisor 
School  trustee 

With  the  economic  order; 

The  cream  gatherer 

The  men  in  the  section  gang,  who  keep  the  railway 

in  repair  and  who  secure  their  drinking  water  from 

the  farmhouse 
Buyers  of  farm  products,  who  make  yearly  visits 
The  threshing  gang 
Wood-cutters 

With  the  animal  world; 

Pets 

Domestic  animals 

Wild  birds  in  great  numbers 

Small  wild  animals  such  as  rabbits,  foxes,  and  squirrels 

Fish  and  snakes 

With  the  world  of  nature ; 

Lake,  mountains,  streams,  and  forests 
Wild  flowers  in  great  profusion ;  other  growing  things 
The  phenomena  of  nature,  such  as  storms,  rainbows, 
and  stars 

The  city  child's  contacts  are  quite  different  in 
some  respects,  although  those  in  the  home  will 
not  show  much  variation. 

The  following  list  gives  some  of  the  contacts 
87 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

of  a  junior  boy  living  in  a  poor  home  in  a  sub- 
urban town: 
With  the  civic  order ; 

Postman 

Policeman 

Fireman 

Health  officer 

Truant  officer,  possibly 

With  the  industrial  order ; 

Factory  hands 

Construction  gang  at  work  near  his  home 

Street  laborers 

With  the  econoudc  order ; 

Butcher 
Grocer 
Milkman 
Carmen 

With  the  animal  world; 

One  or  two  pets 
Delivery  man's  horse 
Fire  horses 
A  few  wild  birds 

Other  children,  living  in  the  same  town  but  in 
more  comfortable  homes,  have  much  more  varied 
contacts  through  frequent  guests,  through  tele- 
phone calls,  and  thl^oug"h  household  servants. 
The  child  who  lives  in  the  large  city  will  have 
many  other  contacts  not  noted  here,  and  the 

88 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

situations  will  vary  according  to  the  circum- 
stances in  which  each  may  be  placed,  but  it  is 
evident  that  the  world  of  the  child  is  not  the 
narrow  restricted  sphere  that  it  is  sometimes  sup- 
posed to  be ;  his  contacts  are  numerous  and  reach 
to  the  end  of  the  earth. 

The  Attitude  of  Service.  If,  then,  every  boy  and 
girl  could  be  taught  to  react  to  all  the  situations 
in  a  truly  Christian  spirit,  would  not  the  work 
of  religious  education  be  completed?  The  child 
has  two  ways  of  adapting  himself — through  ex- 
perience and  through  instruction.  If,  by  means 
of  these,  he  comes  to  respond  with  gratitude  and 
appreciation  to  those  who  serve  him  and  with 
service  and  helpfulness  to  those  who  need,  would 
this  not  be  manifesting  the  spirit  of  brotherhood 
and  cooperation  and  love  to  all  men?  Before 
this  can  become  the  ruling  spirit  in  a  child's 
life,  he  must  be  helped  to  see  his  dependence 
upon  the  street  cleaner  and  the  laundress,  the 
teacher  and  the  preacher,  the  policeman  and  the 
day  laborer,  the  inventor  and  the  postman.  He 
must  realize  that  each  in  his  own  way  and  ac- 
cording to  his  ability  is  serving  the  good  of  all, 
and  that  to  the  extent  that  all  are  working  to- 
gether consciously  for  the  common  welfare,  the 
kingdom  of  God  has  begun.  The  child  must  feel 
that  he,  too,  has  his  share  in  bringing  this  about 

89 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

by  making  Christian  his  own  sphere,  and  as  he 
comes  to  feel  that  its  numerous  contacts  unite 
him  with  living  bonds  to  many  other  spheres,  he 
should  gradually  grow  to  a  realization  that  there 
is 

"But  one  great  fellowship  of  Love 
Throughout  the  whole  wide  earth. 


Who  serves  my  Father  as  a  son 
Is  surely  kin  to  me." 


90 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE  MATERIALS  OF  MISSIONARY  EDU- 
CATION (concluded) 

Incidental  Material  in  Missionary  Teaching.  Strong 
emphasis  has  just  been  laid  on  the  use  of  that 
valuable  missionar}^  mater-ial  which  is  naturally 
found  in  the  every-day  life  of  the  child  and  in 
the  subject  matter  of  the  Sunday-school  lesson, 
but  this  does  not  indicate  that  the  vast  amount 
of  what  may  be  called  incidental  material  is  to  be 
disregarded.  Music,  the  Scripture  readings  used 
in  the  opening  worship  of  the  school,  mission- 
ary occasions,  pictures,  maps,  bulletins,  curios, 
mottoes,  posters,  letters  from  the  field,  the  very 
atmosphere  of  the  room,  the  experiences  and  ob- 
servations of  the  teacher,  when  rightly  used, 
form  an  important  and  valuable  element  in  mis- 
sionary education. 

The  task  of  the  secular  school  is  training  citi- 
zens of  the  world.  Patriotism  is  taught  through 
the  more  formal  study  of  history,  civics,  and  kin- 
dred subjects,  but  no  one  will  doubt  that  loyalty 
is  stimulated  by  singing  the  national  hymns  and 
by   telling  the  stories  of  their   origin,   by   the 

91 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

salute  to  the  flag,  and  by  the  use  of  pictures  of 
the  great  national  leaders  and  heroes. 

The  task  of  the  church  school  is  training  citi- 
zens of  the  Kingdom,  and  loyalty  to  it  and  its 
principles  should  be  inculcated  by  means  of 
methods  similar  to  those  of  the  secular  school. 

Stories  About  Hymns.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
^'The  Star-spangled  Banner"  means  more  to  the 
child  when  he  knows  under  what  circumstances 
it  was  written,  and  possibly,  some  great  occa- 
sions on  which  it  was  sung.  In  like  manner  the 
great  church  hymns  can  come  to  have  far  more 
meaning  and  richness  for  the  child,  if  there  is 
built  up  for  him  a  similar  background  of  relig- 
ious and  missionary  history.  Any  good  work  of 
hymnology  will  give  stories  of  the  origin  and 
use  of  many  of  the  hymns  and  hymn  tunes ;  these 
can  be  told  frequently,  as  the  hymns  are  an- 
nounced. Now  and  then  a  song  service,  with  a 
printed  program  containing  stories  or  incidents 
connected  with  the  hymns,  may  be  used  as  dig- 
nified and  effective  teaching. 

Stories  about  Scripture  Passages.  Similarly,  many 
Scripture  passages  may  be  connected  with  mis- 
sionary incidents.  To  illustrate.  Psalm  121 
should,  in  the  child's  mind,  be  linked  with  Liv- 
ingstone ;  it  was  the  passage  read  by  the  mission- 
ary on  the  morning  he  started  for  Africa.  Genesis 

92 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

1 :  1  and  John  3 :  IG,  verses  slowly  spelled  out 
by  Joseph  Hardy  Neesima,  won  hioi  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith ;  they  lose  none  of  their  intrinsic  value 
and  gain  greatly  in  missionary  content  when  they 
are  connected  with  Neesima's  story.  Many 
stories  to  be  used  thus  can  be  found  in  the  biogra- 
phies of  missionaries.  A  number  can  also  be 
found  in  Five  Missionary  Minutes,  by  George  H. 
Trull.  (See  bibliography.)  It  is  an  excellent 
plan  to  record  such  material  as  this  in  an  indexed 
loose-leaf  note-book  or  in  a  card  file,  for  ready 
reference. 

Birthdays  of  Missionaries.  The  celebration  of  the 
birthdays  of  great  missionaries  is  an  opportunity 
to  build  missionary  ideals  into  the  consciousness 
of  boys  and  girls,  just  as  we  build  into  their  lives 
the  history  of  our  country  in  celebrating  Wash- 
ington's and  Lincoln's  birthdays.  Every  denomi- 
nation has  its  own  men  and  women  to  be  thus 
remembered,  but  the  beginning  may  well  be  with 
some  of  the  heroes  whose  work  was  so  big  that 
it  belongs  to  the  world — such  men  as  Carey  or 
Livingstone  or  Judson  or  Morrison.  To  illustrate 
by  a  single  case,  on  the  Sunday  falling  nearest 
the  nineteenth  of  March  hang  on  the  walls  of 
the  church  school  room  a  w^ell-framed  picture  of 
Livingstone;  it  may  be  veiled  with  the  English 
and  United  States  or  with  the  church  and  United 

93 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

States  flags.  A  simple  program  dealing  with 
Livingstone's  life  and  works  may  have  as  one 
number  the  unveiling  and  presentation  of  the  pic- 
ture. Thereafter  no  year  should  be  allowed  to 
pass  without  some  celebration  of  his  birthday. 
This  may  be  very  simple  and  informal.  The  flags 
may  be  draped  about  the  picture;  some  of  the 
hero's  striking  words,  typed  or  illuminated  by 
the  school  artist,  may  be  placed  under  it;  or 
Psalm  121  may  form  a  part  of  the  Scripture  for 
opening  worship.  A  reference  to  the  date  or  a 
brief  word  of  explanation  from  the  leader  should 
complete  an  effective  bit  of  teaching  which  gets 
its  value  not  from  its  elaborateness  but  from  its 
naturalness  and  its  regularity. 

Photographs  of  Missionaries.  If  a  church  school 
is  privileged  to  have  one  or  more  sons  or  daugh- 
ters in  active  service  on  the  mission  field,  the 
photographs  of  these  servants  of  the  King  should 
surely  find  an  honored  place  in  the  assembly- 
room  of  the  school.  If  these  are  framed  in  a 
group  frame  with  a  vacant  opening  left  to  be 
filled,  the  silent  but  persistent  question  which 
must  continually  meet  the  pupils,  "Who  next?" 
'  will  be  an  influence  that  cannot  be  measured. 

The  Use  of  Pictures.  Many  missionary  pictures 
are  worthy,  both  from  the  artistic  and  from 
the  educational  standpoint,  of  a  permanent  place 

94 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

on  the  schoolroom  walls.  No  one  can  estimate 
the  educational  value  of  such  pictures.  The 
set  of  a  child's  mind  may  be  determined  quite 
unconsciously  but  none  the  less  surely  by  asso- 
ciating some  fine  and  inspiring  picture  with  the 
lessons  taught  in  the  church  school.  Many  less 
intrinsically  valuable  pictures  appear  from  time 
to  time  in  the  missionary  publications.  These 
have  a  passing  interest  and  may  be  used  to  ad- 
vantage. Some  of  them  can  be  fastened  to  the 
bulletin  board  and  frequently  renewed.  Others 
deserve  a  little  more  dignified  treatment  and  may 
be  temporarily  framed.  It  is  surprising  how 
well  magazine  and  other  inexpensive  pictures 
look,  when  put  behind  glass  and  surrounded  with 
a  good  frame  of  a  color  and  finish  to  harmonize 
with  the  surroundings.  A  large  frame  with  a 
hinged  back  and  several  mats  having  different 
sizes  of  openings  will  be  found  most  convenient. 
Missionary  and  secular  magazines  and  tourists' 
guides  are  good  sources  from  which  to  obtain 
fine  pictures.  These  often  make  far  more  valu- 
able teaching  material  if  accompanied  by  brief, 
telling  captions,  which  should  be  very  clearly 
written  or  typed.  The  picture  displayed  in  such 
a  frame  should  be  well  chosen,  artistically  ar- 
ranged, and  frequently  changed.  The  frame 
should  be  hung  low  enough  to  be  within  easy 

95 


MISSIONAEY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIOKS 

reach  of  the  children.  The  interested  groups  that 
gather  about  it  before  and  after  sessions  will 
soon  prove  what  an  important  force  may  be 
exerted  through  attractive  and  significant  pic- 
tures. 

The  Missionary  Bulletin  Board.  The  bulletin 
board,  which  should  be  a  part  of  the  much-used 
equipment  of  every  church  school  room,  will 
often  contain  the  best  missionary  message  of  the 
day ;  this  may  take  the  form  of  a  newspaper  clip- 
ping, a  photograph,  a  letter,  a  striking  story  re- 
duced to  the  fewest  possible  pithy  words,  a  ques- 
tion, a  book  review — any  one  of  a  score  of  things 
which  a  bright  leader  will  think  of  as  effective 
and  catchy  ways  of  attracting  attention  and 
carrying  a  message.  A  publicity  worker  may  be 
enlisted  to  take  entire  charge  of  the  bulletins.  A 
class  may  be  assigned  the  work  of  providing  the 
material  for  a  month,  the  exhibit  being  kept  for 
a  year  and  the  school  voting  at  the  end  as  to 
which  was  the  most  interesting  or  effective.  Dif- 
ferent topics  may  be  assigned  to  different  classes, 
each  class  to  be  responsible  for  keeping  the  school 
informed  on  that  topic  for  a  given  period.  Any 
device  that  will  enlist  the  interest  of  the  children 
and  start  them  thinking  and  working  is  worth 
while. 

Missionary  Posters.     Somewhat  similar  are  the 

96 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

missionary  posters  which  classes  or  groups  may 
prepare  at  stated  times — once  a  month  or  of  tener, 
as  may  seem  best.  Some  background,  uniform  in 
size  and  color,  should  be  decided  upon.  Window 
shading,  green  paper  muslin,  or  bristol-board 
may  be  used,  but  a  medium  weight  cardboard 
mount  is  probably  best  of  all.  A  stock  size  easily 
obtainable  is  22  x  24  inches.  On  these  cardboards 
are  arranged  pictures,  clippings,  charts,  or  small 
curios,  relating  to  any  given  topic.  The  posters 
are  hung  about  the  room.  Interest  is  added  when 
the  class  presenting  one  explains  it  and  tells 
something  of  the  needs  and  the  progress  of  the 
work  in  the  field  portrayed.  There  is  room  for 
much  originality  and  variation  in  arranging 
the  material.  For  example,  a  class  illustrating 
Persia  used  a  small  Persian  rug  as  a  background; 
another  class  presenting  Alaska  made  a  wooden 
canoe — a  model  brought  from  Alaska — the  cen- 
tral point  of  interest;  still  another  class  placed 
a  large  map  of  Africa  in  the  center  and  grouped 
the  pictures  around  it ;  a  class  illustrating  Japan 
used  tea  matting  for  the  background. 

Posters  like  these  should  be  allowed  to  hang 
on  the  walls  as  long  as  they  have  any  interest 
for  the  pupils;  the  alert  teacher  knows  whether 
they  are  interesting  or  not  from  the  size  of  the 
groups  that  gather  to  discuss  them,  and  should 

97 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

see  that  they  are  fresh  and  varied  enough  to  keep 
the  children  interested. 

The  task  of  gathering  the  material  and  the 
responsibility  of  arranging  it,  needless  to  say, 
should  be  thrown  upon  the  children  as  far  as 
possible,  as  this  is  in  itself  a  splendid  means  of 
inculcating  missionary  interest  and  information. 
A  ten-year-old  girl  was  recently  told  to  write  to 
the  foreign  board  for  some  pictures  for  the  class 
poster.  She  did  so  a  little  reluctantly.  The 
next  Sunday  she  arrived  at  the  school  an  hour 
before  time,  demanding  excitedly,  "Where  is  my 
teacher?  I  must  show  her  this  letter!"  The 
board  secretary  had  replied  in  happy  vein  to  her 
inquiry,  using  stationery  on  which  appeared  a 
map  of  the  country  the  child  was  studying  and 
telling  her  just  what  she  wished  to  know.  As 
a  result  the  girl  was  thrilled  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  whole  class  caught  something  of  her 
enthusiasm.  The  teacher  might  have  talked  and 
worked  twice  as  much  and  failed  entirely  to  get 
such  response. 

Missionary  Maps  and  Charts.  Maps  and  charts 
are  yet  other  forms  of  material  that  are  very 
useful.  Most  boards  and  the  Missionary  Educa- 
tion Movement  publish  them  either  ready  for  use 
or  in  outline  or  suggestion.  Purchasing  them  in 
this  way  saves  time,  but  the  teacher  who  sends 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

a  check  to  a  board  for  a  finished  product  loses 
one  of  the  best  opportunities  for  teaching.  The 
map  or  the  chart  which  the  class  has  made  has 
infinitely  more  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  pupils 
than  the  finest  one  that  could  be  bought  ready  for 
use,  and  the  meaning  of  it  has  gone  far  deeper 
into  their  souls.  Since  map  drawing  is  not  an 
essential  part  of  religious  education,  it  will 
doubtless  be  well  to  save  time  and  trouble  by 
buying  the  outline  maps,  but  let  no  teacher, 
through  inertia  or  indifference,  deny  a  class  the 
fun  and  the  education  that  comes  from  coloring 
the  map  or  designing  and  lettering  the  chart. 
Mottoes  and  the  sayings  of  great  missionaries 
may  be  used  in  the  same  way,  and  almost  every 
school  has  at  least  one  member  who  prints  readily 
and  artistically.  If  the  charts  and  mottoes  can 
be  done  in  outline  by  a  member  of  the  school  and 
colored  with  crayon  or  water-color  by  all  the 
children  or  by  a  few  of  them,  several  most  desir- 
able results  are  obtained:  first,  the  child  in 
doing  the  work  has  learned  the  words  or  the 
message  of  the  motto  or  chart ;  second,  he  has  put 
himself  into  a  piece  of  work  for  the  school  or 
class  and  feels  that  he  has  made  a  real  contribu- 
tion to  the  need  of  his  group ;  third,  the  pleasure 
of  the  children  in  using  a  thing  that  "our  school" 
did  is  a  healthy  manifestation  of  the  other  side 

99 


MISSIONAKY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

of  cooperation;  fourth,  the  teacher,  in  directing 
such  worlv,  becomes  better  acquainted  with  her 
pupils. 

School-made  Material  and  "Atmosphere."  The  use 
of  material  made  or  developed  in  the  school  has, 
of  course,  a  strong  educational  value;  some  of 
it  will  be  done  largely  as  a  means  of  instruction. 
But  much  of  it,  when  finished,  is  quite  too  good 
not  to  be  hung  where  all  can  see  it;  the  result 
is  that  intangible  but  very  desirable  thing  we 
call  "atmosphere' '  in  the  school  room.  Just  be- 
cause atmosphere  is  so  indefinable  and  is  breathed 
in  like  the  air,  naturally  and  almost  uncon- 
sciously, it  is  a  potent  factor  in  education.  Every 
church  school  has  its  own  atmosphere.  If  they 
will  take  the  necessary  thought  and  effort,  teach- 
ers may  see  that  this  is  helpful,  cooperative. 
Christian — in  other  words,  missionary — and  so 
they  may  build  these  qualities  into  the  very  life- 
structure  of  their  pupils. 

Missionary  Curios.  Missionary  curios,  like  pos- 
ters and  charts,  help  in  giving  atmosphere;  they 
are  instructional ;  they  may  form  a  service  activ- 
ity, if  made  by  the  children  for  the  school.  Curios 
can  be  cared  for  in  the  growing  museum,  which 
ought  to  be  a  part  of  the  equipment  of  every 
church  school.  Curios  may  be  rented  or,  in  some 
cases,  purchased  outright  from  the  Missionary 

100 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

Education  Movement,  as  well  as  from  most  of  the 
boards.  Others  may  be  obtained  through  mis- 
sionaries; many  quite  as  useful  and  suggestive 
may  be  made  by  the  children  themselves.  No 
better  way  of  making  the  lives  of  other  children 
real  to  our  boys  and  girls  can  be  found  than 
preparing  models  of  the  villages  and  homes,  the 
utensils,  and  the  surroundings  of  children  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  world.  Junior  children  en- 
joy making  all  these  under  direction,  and  if  they 
consider  them  sometimes  a  little  too  childish  to 
engage  their  full  attention  for  their  own  sakes, 
there  is  a  real  joy  in  making  them  for  use,  it  may 
be,  in  the  primary  department.  A  teacher  famil- 
iar with  the  handwork  done  in  the  public  schools 
will  find  little  difficulty  in  setting  up  a  village 
made  of  paper,  cardboard,  or  plasticine,  and 
peopled  with  dolls  of  china,  cloth,  or  paper, 
dressed  in  native  style.  The  secular  school  maga- 
zines are  rich  in  suggestions  for  such  hand-work, 
and  the  files  may  be  found  in  most  public  libra- 
ries. Those  teachers  who  have  not  access  to  such 
helps  are  advised  to  secure  from  denominational 
headquarters  or  from  the  Missionary  Education 
Movement  one  of  the  boxes  of  curios — either 
that  on  Africa  or  the  one  on  Japan — and  use  it 
first.  "How  to  Make  an  African  Village"  con- 
tains directions  and  patterns  for  making  African 

101 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

curios  and  a  hut;  some  directions  for  South 
American  homes  are  given  in  The  Land  of  the 
Golden  Man.  (See  bibliography.)  After  work- 
ing these  out  as  a  beginning,  it  is  quite  easy  to 
make  a  good  representation  of  any  type  of  home 
from  the  descriptions  and  pictures  to  be  found 
in  almost  every  missionary  magazine.  Nearly 
every  school  will  have  at  least  one  member  who 
has  artistic  ability  sufflcient  to  prepare  on  rough 
paper,  with  colored  chalk  or  crayons,  a  sketchy 
background  which  will  give  perspective.  The 
village  should  be  set  up  on  a  sand  tray  or  on  a 
table  covered  with  paper  or  a  rug  to  represent 
grass,  earth,  or  sand.  It  is  a  good  plan  to  have 
such  a  village  in  sight  most  of  the  time,  and  to 
tell  a  story  about  it  after  the  children  have  be- 
come a  little  familiar  with  the  scene ;  the  villages 
may  be  changed  once  in  a  month  or  six  weeks, 
and  when  they  have  been  removed,  they  may  be 
stored  for  future  use. 

Letters  from  the  Field.  Letters  from  the  field, 
when  well  written,  may  be  a  means  of  keeping 
the  home  school  in  touch  with  actual  missionary 
service.  Missionaries  are  such  very  busy  people 
and  are  so  far  away  from  the  home  children  that 
they  sometimes  quite  unconsciously  overlook 
their  interests  and  needs.  Moreover  the  home 
workers  do  not  always  rightly  use  the  letters 

102 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

that  are  sent  back.  If  the  letters  are  read  in  the 
school,  it  is  seldom  wise  to  use  them  in  their 
entirety;  short  extracts  that  go  straight  to  the 
point  will  be  longer  remembered ;  they  should  be 
bright  and  vital.  The  leader  who  presents  the 
letters  must  know  the  pupils  to  whom  they  are 
being  giving.  He  will  sometimes  do  far  better 
to  translate  the  letters  into  the  terms  which  will 
reach  the  pupils  than  to  read  them  in  their  more 
sober  and  less  interesting  wording.  Reports  of 
some  kind  must  be  used,  if  the  interest  of  the 
pupils  is  to  be  kept  up,  but  discretion  must  be 
exercised  in  choosing  and  presenting  them, 
whether  they  are  culled  from  printed  reports  or 
letters. 

The  Christian  Flag  Salute.  One  other  method  of 
stimulating  missionary  loyalty  and  enthusiasm 
must  be  mentioned — the  flag  salute.  This  should 
form  a  part  of  all  missionary  programs  and  may 
well  be  used  frequently  in  the  ordinary  program 
of  opening  worship.  The  ceremony  is  described 
in  a  leaflet  published  by  the  Missionary  Educa- 
tion Movement,  which  is  here  quoted : 

The  Christian  Flag 
Meaning 

The  Christian  flag  is  the  banner  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
It  stands  for  no  creed  or  denomination.     It  contains  no 

103 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

symbol  of  warfare.  The  ground  is  white,  representing 
peace  and  purity.  In  the  upper  corner  is  a  blue  field,  the 
color  of  the  unclouded  sky,  the  symbol  of  fidelity  and 
truth.  Its  chief  device,  the  cross  of  red,  is  the  emblem 
of  Christian  sacrifice.  The  Christian  patriot  pledges 
fidelity  to  the  kingdom  of  God  when  he  salutes  this  flag. 

Use 

The  following  simple  ceremony  has  been  found  ef- 
fective in  Sunday-schools  and  other  assemblies. 

Two  pupils,  one  carrying  a  United  States  flag,  the 
other  a  Christian  flag,  march  to  the  platform.  School 
stands. 

United  States  flag  is  held  aloft. 

School  salutes  United  States  flag  by  extending  right 
hands  toward  it  and  repeating: 

I  pledge  allegiance  to  my  -flag,  and  to  the  republic  for 
which  it  stands;  one  nation  indivisible,  with  liberty 
and  justice  for  all. 

Christian  flag  is  held  aloft. 

United  States  flag  is  grounded  by  lowering,  and  touch- 
ing the  tip  to  the  ground: 

School  salutes  Christian  flag  by  extending  right  hands 
toward  it  and  repeating: 

I  pledge  allegiance  to  my  flag  and  to  the  Savior  for 
whose  Kingdom  it  stands;  one  brotherhood,  uniting 
all  mankind  in  service  and  love. 

School  sings: 

Fling  out  the  banner!    Let  it  float. 

Skyward  and  seaward,  high  and  wide; 
The  sun  that  lights  its  shining  folds. 
The  cross  on  which  the  Savior  died. 
104 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

Fling  out  the  banner !    Heathen  lands 
Shall  see  from  far  the  glorious  sight. 

And  nations,  crowding  to  be  born. 
Baptize  their  spirits  in  its  light. 

This  ceremony  should  be  carried  out  without  announce- 
ment or  explanation.  The  appearance  of  the  flags  is  the 
signal  for  the  school  to  stand.  A  single  chord  on  piano 
or  organ  is  the  signal  for  the  salute,  and  for  the  singing 
of  the  hymn. 

Value 

Such  a  ceremony  stimulates  Christian  patriotism.  If 
the  spread  of  Christ's  kingdom  on  earth  is  the  chief 
concern  of  the  church,  it  is  well  that  the  children  and 
youth  should  regard  the  missionary  enterprise  with  feel- 
ings of  enthusiasm  and  loyalty.  The  flag  ceremony  may 
be  used  for  the  opening  of  the  Sunday-school  session,  or 
it  may  be  a  special  feature  of  missionary  programs.  In 
any  case  it  is  an  effective  method  of  creating  a  missionary 
atmosphere  in  the  church  school. 

The  Christian  and  United  States  flags  may  be  obtained 
from  the  educational  department  of  your  board  or  the 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New 
York. 

Experiences  and  Observations  of  the  Teacher.  Fin- 
ally, the  experiences  and  observations  of  the 
teacher  himself  are  an  important  part  of  mis- 
sionary material.  At  first  thought  these  may 
seem  to  be  too  commonplace  and  too  simple  to 
possess  much  value,  but  any  teacher  must  be 
aware  of  the  fact  that  no  illustrations  he  uses  in 

105 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

his  teaching  produce  more  certain  and  desirable 
results  than  those  he  draws  from  his  own  experi- 
ence ;  these  have  a  reality  and  a  naturalness  that 
make  them  doubly  effective.  The  observant  in- 
structor who  keeps  his  eyes  open  and  his  mind 
alert  is  constantly  discovering  teaching  material 
in  every-day  life;  if  he  is  wise,  he  records  the 
incidents  as  they  come  to  him,  keeping  a  carefully 
indexed  note-book  or  a  card  file. 

"Where  do  you  find  such  clever  ideas  for  mis- 
sionary teaching?"  was  asked  of  one  young 
leader,  who  had  met  with  success  in  her  work. 
"I  am  not  original,''  she  replied,  "so  I  have 
learned  to  make  everything  that  comes  to  my  mill 
missionary  grist,''  and  she  showed  how  public 
school  devices,  newspaper  ideas,  even  the  adver- 
tising pages  of  magazines  had  been  turned  to  mis- 
sionary account. 

"I'd  like  to  make  a  poster  showing  South 
America's  gifts  to  us,"  said  a  teacher,  "but  my 
children  are  too  poor  to  buy  the  pictures  for  it." 
In  reply,  a  friend  turned  to  a  pile  of  discarded 
magazines  and  in  five  minutes  had  selected  from 
them  a  score  of  pictures,  which,  with  the  proper 
caption,  showed  graphically  how  South  America 
sends  us  coffee,  beef,  leather  for  shoes,  for  bags, 
and  for  book  bindings,  sugar,  silver,  rubber  for 
rain-coats,  for  tennis  balls,  and  for  tires,  pepper 

106 


MATERIALS  OF  EDUCATION 

for  seasoning,  quinin  and  cocain  for  hospitals 
and  dentistry,  cocoa  for  food  and  candy,  nitrates 
for  lawns,  and  asphalt  for  paving.  The  value  of 
such  teaching  is  apparent;  the  emphasis  here  is 
rather  on  the  ease  with  which  material  may  be 
found,  if  one  is  only  alert  to  see  it  and  use  it. 
It  does  not  require  originality  or  cleverness  to 
discover  it ;  interest  and  adaptability  are  all  that 
is  necessary;  and  the  swift  and  joyous  response 
of  children  to  such  attractive  teaching  is  at  once 
a  reward  and  an  inspiration.  The  teacher  who 
enters  whole-heartedly  into  the  work  is  soon  re- 
paid, not  tenfold,  nor  thirtyfold,  but  a  hundred- 
fold. 


107 


CHAPTEK    VIII 

TELLING  MISSIONARY  STORIES 

The  Art  of  Story-telling.  Story-telling,  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  of  arts,  is  also  one  of  the  old- 
est ;  to  recall  the  long  list  of  story-tellers  and  the 
tales  they  told  is  to  read  the  history  of  the  race. 
When,  in  the  course  of  time,  story-telling  ceased 
to  be  a  profession,  mothers  continued  to  tell 
stories  to  the  children  at  their  knees,  and  teachers 
have  always  taught  their  best  lessons  in  the 
same  way.  The  art  has  never  been  really  lost, 
but  our  own  day  is  seeing  a  revival  of  interest  in 
it,  because  the  educational  value  of  the  story  is 
being  recognized  afresh.  Story-telling  leagues 
and  classes  are  plentiful,  and  books  on  the  selec- 
tion and  use  of  stories  and  on  the  technique  of 
story-telling  are  being  constantly  produced.  For 
it  is  generally  agreed  that  story-telling,  being 
based  on  definite  ]3rinciples  and  worked  out  by 
rules,  can  be  mastered  by  any  one  who  is  will- 
ing to  pay  the  price  of  effort  and  study.  Even 
those  who  seem  to  be  "born  story-tellers"  follow 
certain  well-tested  laws,  though  by  long  practise 
they  have  acquired  such  skill  that  the  machinery 

108 


TELLING  MISSIONARY  STORIES 

does  not  show.  Indeed,  it  is  just  in  practise  that 
the  secret  of  success  lies,  and  of  this  no  one  can 
have  too  much. 

Learning  to  Tell  Stories.  The  ideal  way  to  begin 
is  by  joining  a  story- telling  class  or  league,  but 
if  this  is  not  possible,  a  good  start  may  be  made 
by  diligent  use  of  the  best  book  to  be  found  on 
the  subject;  in  this  way  familiarity  with  the 
theory  of  story-telling  may  be  acquired,  and  tech- 
nique and  ease  in  telling  will  come  with  train- 
ing and  experience.  Undoubtedly  the  best  book 
for  the  beginner  is  Stories  and  Story  Telling^ 
by  Edward  Porter  St.  John.  (See  bibliogra- 
phy.) It  contains  chapters  on  the  educational 
value  of  story-telling,  the  vital  characteristics 
of  a  good  story,  the  use  of  different  types  of 
stories,  and  the  story-interests  of  childhood  and 
adolescence.  Each  chapter  closes  with  an  out- 
line and  suggestions  for  the  study  of  the  topic, 
and  the  final  chapter  contains  a  carefully  classi- 
fied bibliography.  By  a  careful  study  of  this 
book  even  the  most  inexperienced  teacher  may 
hope  to  gain  power  and  skill  as  a  story-teller. 

The  Essential  Product  of  a  Story.  A  story,  like  a 
poem,  a  painting,  or  a  musical  composition, 
should  produce  pleasure;  this  is  the  chief  essen- 
tial, the  sine  qua  non,  of  all  story-telling,  and 

109 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

perhaps  more  especially  of  missionary  story-tell- 
ing. It  is  quite  true  that  the  story-teller  may, 
and  generally  does,  have  an  additional  end  in 
mind,  such  as  giving  information  or  teaching  a 
moral  truth.  But  if  the  telling  gives  little  or 
no  pleasure  to  the  hearer,  there  is  a  failure  to 
establish  that  happy  relation  between  the  nar- 
rator and  the  listener  which  is  one  of  the  delight- 
ful accompaniments  of  good  story-telling.  The 
lack  of  pleasure  results  in  a  corresponding  lack 
of  assent  to  the  teaching  which  the  hearer,  under 
happier  circumstances,  might  have  gladly  re- 
ceived. The  good  story-teller  gives  pleasure  to 
his  hearers,  quickens  their  powers  of  perception, 
and  stimulates  their  imaginations,  and  the  teach- 
ing of  the  story,  being  so  closely  associated  with 
the  sense  of  pleasure,  makes  a  deep  and  perma- 
nent impression.  No  story-teller,  then,  will  be- 
grudge any  effort  to  perfect  the  rendering  of  a 
tale;  and  the  unity  of  the  story,  its  beginning, 
action,  climax,  and  end,  will  be  studied  and 
worked  over  with  the  greatest  care. 

The  Unity  of  the  Story.  It  is  at  the  first  point, 
the  unity  of  a  story,  that  beginners  are  most 
likely  to  err.  The  danger  is  that  the  story  will 
include  far  too  much  and  cover  too  long  a  period 
of  time.  For  example,  Livingstone's  fight  with 
the  lion  or  John  G.  Paton's  digging  of  the  well 

110 


TELLING  MISSIONARY  STORIES 

at  Aniwa  are  complete  stories  in  themselves  and 
need  only  enough  reference  to  the  biographies  of 
the  heroes  to  form  a  proper  background ;  any  at- 
tempt to  give  a  sketch  of  the  entire  life  of  the 
hero  would  destroy  all  unity  and  result  in  con- 
fusion. The  scope  of  a  story  should  be  narrowed 
to  take  in  only  a  single  striking  incident,  and 
this  the  teacher  must  see  and  feel  vividly  himself. 
It  is  excellent  practise,  in  preparing  the  story, 
to  eliminate  everything  but  the  very  heart  of  it; 
this  may  sometimes  be  brought  within  the  com- 
pass of  a  single  sentence.  Then  exactly  the  re- 
verse process  must  be  followed,  and  the  story 
must  be  expanded  and  clothed  with  life  and  color 
and  movement;  in  doing  this,  the  narrator  mas- 
ters it  and  needs  then  only  to  repeat  it  again  and 
again. 

The  Beginning  and  the  End.  The  beginning  of  a 
story  is  often  troublesome.  Sometimes  it  reminds 
one  of  the  counsel  of  whom  Marie  L.  Shedlock 
speaks  in  the  introduction  to  The  Art  of  the 
Story-teller.  He  began  his  defence  with  "Be- 
fore the  creation  of  the  world — '^  but  was  inter- 
rupted by  the  judge  with  "Let  us  pass  on  to  the 
deluge !''  The  amateur,  inclined  to  begin  too  far 
back,  needs  to  pass  on  to  and  over  the  deluge  and 
start  with  the  founding  of  the  kingdom ;  in  other 
words,  his  beginning  should  be  just  so  far  away 

111 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

from  his  actual  story  as  is  necessary  to  establish 
a  point  of  contact  between  his  auditors  and  his 
characters ;  then  the  story  should  move  with  rapid 
action  toward  the  climax.  "Your  story  petered 
out  and  ran  down  like  an  Ingersoll  watch !''  was 
the  drastic  comment  of  one  critic,  and  this  is 
often  true  of  stories  which  start  out  well.  The 
difficulty  may  be  avoided  by  selecting  a  single 
striking  point,  the  climax,  toward  which  the 
whole  action  moves.  The  climax  is  sometimes  the 
end  of  the  story,  but  more  frequently  it  needs 
to  be  rounded  off  with  a  sentence  or  more.  To 
end  a  story  dramatically  and  forcefully  requires 
some  skill  and  practise ;  study  of  good  models  is 
a  great  help  here. 

The  Story  and  Its  Moral.  It  is  hardly  necessary 
to  add  that  the  truth  to  be  taught  is  so  woven 
in,  if  the  tale  be  skilfully  told,  that  it  becomes 
an  integral  and  inseparable  part  of  the  story;  if 
not,  it  is  worse  than  useless  to  try  to  add  it  at 
the  end  in  the  style  of  old-fashioned  stories  which 
ended  with,  "Moral:  This  tale  teaches — y  If 
the  truth  is  imbedded  in  the  story,  it  will  reach 
the  mark  in  most  cases ;  if  it  is  not  so  ingrained, 
the  story  is  a  failure. 

The  Use  of  Stories.  The  missionary  instructor 
uses  the  story  as  one  very  happy  way  of  impart- 
ing information,  or  he  may  choose  it  as  a  vehicle 

112 


TELLING  MISSIONARY  STORIES 

for  teaching  a  moral  truth.  Again,  just  as  the 
primitive  tribes  transmitted  their  legends  and 
sacred  formulas  by  handing  down  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  the  traditions  of  the  group,  so 
the  significant  stories  of  church  history  and  of 
the  missionary  enterprise  may  be  told  again  and 
again  to  our  boys  and  girls  and  form  a  rich  part 
of  their  inheritance.  Yet  again  the  teacher  may 
use  stories  as  one  means  of  creating  an  environ- 
ment that  will  stimulate  the  right  response.  The 
child's  experience  may  be  enlarged  through  his 
imagination,  and  his  reactions  directed,  till  the 
Christian  response  will  be  entirely  natural  to 
actual  situations  when  they  arise. 

So,  too,  the  feeling  of  kinship  and  brotherhood 
with  boys  and  girls  all  over  the  world  may  be 
cultivated  by  telling  the  fairy  and  folk-lore  tales 
of  other  lands.  These  are  now  becoming  avail- 
able in  increasing  numbers.  They  are  enjoyable 
stories  in  themselves,  and  they  have  a  distinct 
missionary  value  when  told  as  the  tales  which 
children  in  Africa  or  India  or  South  America 
enjoy,  just  as  we  love  our  own  tales  of  childhood. 
So  used,  stories  like  "How  the  Fog  Came,''  Every- 
land,  March,  1915,  "Why  the  Banana  Belongs  to 
the  Monkey,"  Everyland,  November,  1916,  and 
"How  the  Tiger  Got  His  Stripes,"  Everyland, 
January,  1917,  make  good  missionary  material. 

113 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

Stories  True  or  True-to-fact.  Most  missionary 
stories  ought  to  be  true ;  that  is,  though  they  may 
not  have  actually  happened,  they  should  be  true 
to  the  life  and  conditions  of  the  time  and  place. 
In  any  case  they  should  contain  a  great  truth, 
such  as  is  conveyed  in  the  best  fairy  tales,  fables, 
and  allegories.  Stories  absolutely  true  to  fact, 
so  popular  with  junior  boys  and  girls,  may  be 
found  in  the  lives  and  deeds  of  many  missiona- 
ries. If  well  told,  they  are  sure  to  be  received 
with  great  interest  and  often  have  far-reaching 
results. 

Sources  of  Stories.  The  sources  of  good  mission- 
ary stories  are  numerous  and  accessible,  and  the 
number  of  stories  written  for  children  from  their 
point  of  view  is  happily  increasing,  though  not 
yet  adequate.  Most  of  the  mission  boards  pub- 
lish a  number  of  missionary  biographies  and 
stories  for  children,  while  lives  of  missionaries 
written  for  adults  contain  much  material  which 
the  patient  and  earnest  teacher  will  dig  out  for 
his  pupils  and  work  over  to  suit  their  require- 
ments. An  alert  teacher  will  find  in  many  an 
unexpected  place  incidents  and  hints  which  he 
can  develop  into  excellent  missionary  stories. 
Here  again  a  loose-leaf  note-book  or  a  card  file 
is  an  invaluable  aid. 

The  current  missionary  publications  for  chil- 
114 


TELLING  MISSIONARY  STORIES 

dren  give  fresh  material  prepared  for  them. 
Notable  among-  such  magazines  is  Everyland. 
Secular  magazines  often  contain  much  that  is  of 
missionary  value,  and  their  pictures  or  stories 
frequently  afford  the  teacher  a  good  starting- 
point. 

A  leaflet  entitled,  "World  Friendship  for  Boys 
and  Girls,"  published  by  the  Missionary  Educa- 
tion Movement  and  sent  free  on  request,  contains 
lists  and  sources  of  missionary  stories  to  tell. 


115 


CHAPTEE    IX 

JUNIOR    MISSIONARY    READING 

The  Reading  Hunger  of  Juniors.  At  some  point 
between  the  ages  of  nine  and  twelve  the  child 
learns  to  read  easily  and  naturally;  the  exact 
age  varies  with  circumstances  and  ability.  Pro- 
fessor L.  A.  Weigle,  in  The  Pupil  and  the 
Teacher,  uses  this  point  to  mark  the  transition 
from  middle  to  later  childhood.  The  new  ac- 
complishment is  a  key  by  which  the  child  unlocks 
the  door  of  a  new  world.  With  insatiable  ap- 
petite his  mind  seizes  the  feast  offered  it  in  the 
pages  of  books.  Everything  printed  seems  to 
have  a  real  worth,  merely  because  it  is  printed, 
and  the  child  reads  with  little  discrimination 
everything  on  which  he  can  lay  hands.  The  story 
of  the  youthful  Edison  starting  to  read  all  the 
books  in  a  public  library  and  actually  finishing 
ten  feet  of  shelves  before  circumstances  took 
him  from  the  town  could  doubtless  be  duplicated 
by  that  of  many  other  boys  and  girls.  At  this 
time  children  will  resort  to  almost  any  means  to 
satisfy  the  craving  for  reading;  the  story-book 

116 


JUNIOR  MISSIONARY  READING 

will  be  hidden  under  the  pillow  at  night,  ready 
for  the  first  beam  of  daylight;  it  will  be  slipped 
among  the  schoolbooks  and  receive  more  than 
passing  attention  during  the  day,  when  chance 
of  detection  makes  the  stolen  joy  all  the  sweeter. 
No  punishment  thought  out  in  cold-blooded  de- 
liberation by  a  stony-hearted  parent  or  an  un- 
sympathetic teacher  can  equal  that  of  depriving 
a  child  of  his  book  before  the  end  is  reached.  It 
is  as  useless  and  as  harmful  to  try  to  repress  this 
hunger  for  reading  as  it  would  be  to  destroy  the 
growing  child's  hunger  for  food ;  both  are  normal, 
healthy  manifestations  of  growth,  and  both 
should  be  supplied  with  proper  and  nourishing 
fare. 

Reading  Tastes  of  Juniors.  Now  boys  and  girls 
have  very  decided  ideas  as  to  the  kind  of  reading 
they  wish,  and  just  as  in  the  matter  of  food  for 
the  physical  body,  so  here  a  wise  choice  must  be 
made  by  the  home  and  the  school.  The  "goody- 
goody"  book  and  the  tale  with  the  moral  plainly 
labeled  and  tacked  on,  the  modern  child  will  not 
accept ;  he  demands  books  that  are  "exciting"  and 
that  have  "plenty  of  thrill."  The  junior  child, 
even  if  literal-minded,  may  delight  in  fairy  tales, 
though  he  sometimes  puts  them  in  a  class  by 
themselves  and  only  half  believes  in  them,  even 
while  he  revels  in  their  poetry  and  imagination. 

117 


MISSIONAEY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

At  the  same  time  lie  may  present  the  curious  con- 
tradiction of  insisting  that  all  the  other  stories 
be  "true,"  and  refusing  any  that  do  not  bear  this 
label.  To  most  children  of  this  age  the  world 
of  books  is  more  real  than  the  commonplace 
sphere  of  actual  life;  the  daily  round  of  tasks, 
school,  and  lessons,  dressing  and  meals,  and  the 
thousand  and  one  things  on  which  elders  lay  so 
much  stress  are  scarcely  ripples  on  the  surface 
of  the  deeps  in  which  children  live.  Their  active 
fancy  makes  real  the  characters  of  the  books  they 
read,  and  these  become  their  friends  in  such  a 
real  sense  that  to  learn  they  are  only  the  creation 
of  the  author's  mind  is  like  hearing  of  the  death 
of  a  beloved  comrade.  How  many  of  us  remem- 
ber the  black  day  of  disillusionment  and  bitter 
disappointment  that  brought  the  realization  that 
one's  story-book  friends  had  never  actually  lived ! 
Stories  of  Real  Heroes  and  Heroines.  Of  course  all 
children  are  not  so  matter-of-fact,  but  the  dis- 
appointment and  disenchantment  of  even  the 
literal-minded  child  may  be  avoided  at  the  same 
time  that  his  longing  for  excitement  and  adven- 
ture is  met,  by  giving  him  stories  that  are  true 
and  at  the  same  time  thrilling.  The  biographies 
of  scores  of  men  and  women  who  spent  their  lives 
on  the  mission  field,  in  social  work  for  the  better- 
ment   of    mankind,    in    scientific    research,    in 

118 


JUNIOR  MISSIONARY  READING 

efforts  of  any  kind  to  advance  man's  welfare  and 
happiness  afford  the  very  best  of  material  for 
the  mind  of  the  junior  to  feed  upon.  Unfortu- 
nately, up  till  now  much  of  this  material  has 
been  prepared  only  for  adults,  or,  at  the  best, 
from  an  adult  point  of  view,  but  there  is  a  con- 
stantly increasing  amount  of  literature  for  chil- 
dren which  fills  all  these  demands.  It  also  meets 
another  need  in  supplying  the  knowledge  of 
men  and  women  whom  the  children  may  ideal- 
ize and  worship  as  heroes  and  heroines.  At  first, 
at  least,  these  must  be  the  people  who  do  some- 
thing, who  succeed  in  their  undertakings!  If 
children  at  the  right  time  make  the  acquaint- 
ance of  a  Grenfell,  a  Livingstone,  a  Clara  Barton, 
or  a  Frances  Willard,  such  characters  will  be 
quickly  chosen  as  ideals  and  leave  no  room  for 
the  worship  of  a  boxing  hero  or  a  moving-picture 
actress. 

Stories  with  Emphasis  on  Universal  Traits.  Another 
type  of  missionary  story  for  children  is  fortu- 
nately becoming  more  common.  In  the  older 
view  of  the  missionary  enterprise,  it  was  thought 
wise  to  emphasize  to  children  the  difference  be- 
tween themselves  and  the  children  for  whom  sym- 
pathy was  sought,  on  the  ground  that  interest 
could  thus  be  aroused  more  surely  and  quickly. 
Two  things  have  changed  this  point  of  view.  The 

119 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

first  is  the  realization  that  what  is  very  greatly 
different  from  oneself  arouses  curiosity,  perhaps, 
but  seldom  sympathy;  the  feeling  is  more  likely 
to  be  dislike  and  repugnance.  The  second  con- 
sideration arises  from  the  new  conception  of  the 
missionary  enterprise.  Less  is  said  about  the 
"heathen''  and  more  about  brotherhood;  less 
emphasis  is  put  on  giving  and  more  on  coopera- 
tion. A  child's  sympathy  is  more  readily  elicited 
for  his  brother  in  another  land  when  he  thinks 
of  him  as  a  boy  like  himself,  facing  many  of  the 
same  problems  of  adjustment,  meeting  the  same 
daily  temptations  to  do  wrong,  and  fighting  the 
same  battles  for  right,  though  his  skin  is  brown 
or  black,  and  the  southern  cross  blazes  in  his 
sky.  So  there  is  coming  into  existence  a  class  of 
stories  that  show  boys  and  girls  the  world  over 
as  being  much  alike  in  all  essential  characteris- 
tics; they  make  it  possible  for  Christian  boys 
and  girls  to  admire  the  fine  inherent  qualities  of 
their  brothers  and  sisters  around  the  world 
and  to  be  eager  to  share  with  them — a  much  more 
wholesome  attitude  than  the  patronizing  position 
of  stooping  from  a  fortunate  place  to  give  to 
those  in  far  humbler  condition.  Notable  among 
such  stories  may  be  mentioned  African  Adven- 
turerSj  by  Jean  K.  Mackenzie,  and  the  South 
American  stories  by  Anita  B.  Ferris,  published 

120 


JUNIOR  MISSIONARY  READING 

in  the  first  six  numbers  of  Everyland  for  1917. 

Stimulating  the  Love  of  Good  Reading.  Occa- 
sionally a  child  Avill  be  found  who  has  no  interest 
in  reading.  Such  a  case  needs  tactful  treatment, 
but  no  mother  or  teacher  need  fear  that  the  love 
of  reading  may  not  be  implanted.  Indifference 
may  arise  from  the  fact  that  the  child  reads  too 
slowly  to  enjoy  it,  or  because  he  has  not  had  his 
appetite  stimulated.  Telling  stories  till  a  desire 
for  more  is  created  or  telling  a  story  up  to  the 
crucial  situation  and  then  giving  it  to  the  child 
to  finish  are  ways  of  starting  the  habit  of  reading. 
Much  can  be  done  by  the  simple  process  of  ex- 
posing children  to  the  influences  of  good  books. 
If  parents  and  teachers  see  that  good  reading  is 
constantly  in  reach  of  children  and  that  they 
live  in  an  atmosphere  of  books,  the  cases  in  which 
children  do  not  respond  will  be  rare.  The  wise 
guide  will  not  forbid  even  the  objectionable 
books,  unless  this  becomes  absolutely  necessary; 
such  a  course  often  tends  to  arouse  the  curiosity 
of  the  child  to  know  what  the  book  contains  and 
may  make  it  seem  all  the  more  desirable,  because 
unobtainable.  The  better  way  is  to  keep  the 
supply  of  good  reading  so  plentiful  that  the  poor 
has  no  chance. 

The  Prejudice  Against  Missionary  Books.  A  teacher 
sometimes  finds  pupils  greatly  prejudiced  against 

121 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

missionary  books  and  stories.  This  may  arise 
from  the  fact  that  such  reading  has  not  been  well 
chosen,  or  because  the  children  have  been  urged 
toward  it  too  strongly  and  therefore  view  it  in 
the  light  of  a  disagreeable  duty.  In  such  cases 
some  scheme  must  be  devised  that  will  pleasantly 
introduce  children  to  the  really  delightful  mis- 
sionary literature  that  exists  for  them,  and  a 
taste  for  it  must  be  fostered.  One  way  of  ac- 
complishing this  is  to  bind  and  box  attractively, 
short  stories  taken  from  magazines  or  papers, 
the  boxes  being  circulated  as  books.  Care  should 
be  taken  that  only  the  best  and  most  interesting 
stories  are  chosen.  It  is  by  no  means  necessary 
that  each  should  be  plainly  labeled  missionary; 
the  word  is  coming  rapidly  to  have  a  broader 
meaning  than  formerly  for  adults,  and  if  it  con- 
veys to  children  a  wrong  impression,  it  is  as  well 
to  omit  it  till  it  can  receive  its  proper  content. 

"Climbing  the  Ladder."  Another  device  that  is 
often  useful  is  "Climbing  the  Ladder.-'  A  genu- 
ine ladder  may  be  used,  but  it  is  probably  better 
for  the  junior  boys  to  make  an  imitation  one  of 
straight  pieces  of  wood,  using  broomsticks  sawed 
the  proper  length  for  the  rungs,  which  should  be 
eight  or  ten  in  number.  The  ladder  should  be 
placed  conspicuously  in  the  junior  room,  and 
each  rung  should  bear  a  card  having  plainly 

122 


JUNIOR  MISSIONARY  READING 

printed  on  it  the  name  of  a  book.  As  the  pupils 
read  the  books,  they  climb  the  ladder.  If  the 
number  of  books  available  is  limited,  it  may  be 
necessary  to  allow  the  children  to  read  them  in 
any  order,  so  that  all  the  pupils  may  have  an 
equal  chance;  in  this  case  a  second  card  on  each 
rung  might  be  used  to  record  the  names  of  the 
pupils  who  have  read  the  book  of  that  rung.  The 
children  who  complete  the  list  first  should  have 
the  feat  recognized  in  some  simple  but  public 
way.  To  insure  against  hasty  and  superficial 
reading,  the  pupils  may  be  asked  to  answer  ques- 
tions, to  dramatize  a  scene,  or  to  relate  their 
favorite  incident  in  the  book. 

The  Story-book  Trip.  Another  device  attractive 
to  children  is  the  story-book  trip.  At  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  leader  this  may  include  a  single 
country  or  a  continent,  or  it  may  be  a  trip  around 
the  w^orld.  Very  simple  accessories  may  be  made 
to  serve  the  purpose,  or  they  may  be  elaborate 
and  include  folders,  time-tables,  maps,  and  other 
paraphernalia  of  the  traveler.  To  each  pupil 
should  be  issued  a  ticket,  printed  on  colored 
paper,  to  resemble  a  genuine  railway  ticket.  In 
a  large  department  these  w^ould  be  more  easily 
obtained  if  printed;  for  smaller  classes  they 
could  be  typewritten.  The  following  suggests  a 
possible  form: 

123 


MISSIONAEY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIOKS 

S.  B.  R.  R. 

via 

E.  C.  and  H.  F.  Line 

( Story-book  Reading  Route 

via  the  Easy  Chair  and 

Home  Fireside  Line. ) 

Good  till 

Stop-overs  at  all  points 

Conductors  please  punch  at: 

South  America — 

Tlie  Land  of  the  Golden  Man* 

Japan — 

When  I  Was  a  Boy  in  Japan* 

The  titles  of  the  books  may  be  varied  to  suit 
individual  needs;  an  optional  list  may  be  called 
Side  Trips.  Maps  and  posters  advertising  the 
trip,  folders  giving  attractive  reviews  of  the 
books,  ^'time-tables"  stating  the  time  when  re- 
ports must  be  given  on  the  books  and  when  the 
reading  band  will  give  a  program  or  hold  a  meet- 
ing, all  may  be  used  to  add  interest.  A  large  out- 
line map  of  the  world  may  be  colored  and  filled 
in,  as  the  class  travels  from  place  to  place  by 
reading,  and  the  spots  so  visited  may  be  indicated 

124 


JUNIOR  MISSIONARY  READING 

by  pinniui>-  a  tiny  Hag-  seal  to  the  luap.  Book  re- 
views iu  the  form  of  fifty-word  telegrams  giving 
the  most  interesting  things  seen  or  found  in  any 
place  may  be  sent  to  be  read  in  the  department. 
As  each  book  is  read,  the  "conductor"  punches 
the  ticket,  and  this  forms  the  record  of  the  read- 
ing. 

Short  Stories  and  Pamphlets.  For  children  in  the 
earlier  period  of  the  junior  department,  to  whom 
a  whole  book  may  seem  so  long  that  they  hesi- 
tate to  undertake  reading  it,  collections  of  short 
stories  and  pamphlets  may  be  prepared.  These, 
as  well  as  all  the  books  oifered  for  junior  read- 
ing, should  be  assembled  as  attractively  as  pos- 
sible. The  print  should  be  clear,  the  illustrations 
good,  the  stories  natural  and  full  of  action,  the 
binding  bright,  clean,  and  pretty.  The  pamphlets 
or  leaflets  may  be  put  in  envelopes  which  are 
decorated  with  pictures,  post-cards,  or  sketches 
indicative  of  the  contents.  The  outside  of  the 
envelopes  or  of  the  books  should  make  a  child's 
fingers  fairly  ache  to  get  at  the  contents,  and  the 
reading  matter  should  be  so  well  selected  that 
he  comes  again  and  again  for  more. 

The  Search  for  Missionary  Material.  In  the  fourth 
junior  year,  and  in  some  cases  in  the  third  year, 
the  pupils  are  old  enough  to  be  greatly  interested 
in  watching  the  secular  press  for  comment  that 

125 


MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  OF  JUNIORS 

will  have  a  missionary  import.  Such  comment 
may  be  culled  and  sorted  by  subject  and  made 
into  scrap-books  or  filed  for  future  reference. 
Valuable  material  will  be  gathered  in  this  way, 
but  the  chief  advantage  will  be  the  quickened  in- 
terest of  the  pupils  and  the  broader  outlook  they 
gain  on  the  life  of  the  world. 

Books  of  Missionary  Influence.  It  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  add  that  any  books  which  give  children 
ideals  of  brotherhood,  sharing,  and  service,  or 
which  tend  to  increase  their  knowledge  of  and 
respect  for  the  children  of  other  lands  are  truly 
missionary  in  their  influence,  whether  or  not  they 
were  written  with  a  missionary  basis.  The^num- 
ber  of  missionary  books  that  are  well  written 
and  that  are  at  the  same  time  suited  to  junior 
children  is  fortunately  increasing,  though  the 
supply  is  not  yet  adequate.  Yet  any  teacher 
should  be  able  to  find  in  the  appended  list  books 
of  genuine  character-building  value  for  junior 
pupils,  however  their  tastes  and  needs  may  vary. 
Many  of  them  are  in  the  public  libraries ;  others 
are  used  in  the  public  schools;  many  more  are 
worthy  of  a  place  in  the  church  school  mission- 
ary library. 


126 


READING    BOOKS    ON    WORLD    FRIEND- 
SHIP FOR  JUNIOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

(Prices  subject  to  change) 

Amicis.     Cuore,  an  Italian  school-boy's  journal.     Henry 

Holt  &  Co.    $1.00. 
Ballard.     Fairy    Tales    from    Far    Japun.     Fleming    H. 

Revell  Co.    $1.00. 
Bicknell.    How    a   Little    Girl    Went    to   Africa.      1904. 

Lothrop,  Lee  &  Shepard  Co.    $1.00. 
Bowman.     South  America:  A   Geography  Reader.     1915. 

Rand,  McNally  &  Co.    75  cents. 
Brain.     Adventures  with  Four-footed  Folk.    1908.    Flem- 
ing H.  Eevell  Co.     $1.00. 
Brain.    All  About  Japan.    1905.    Fleming  H.  Revell  Co. 

$1.00. 
Bunker.     Soo  Thah.    1902.    Fleming  H.  Eevell  Co.    $1.00. 
Chamberlain.    Home  and  World  Series.     The  Macmillan 
Co.    40  cents  each. 

How  We  are  Clothed.    1904. 
How  We  are  Fed.     1903. 
How  We  are  Sheltered:    1906. 
How  We  Travel.    1908. 
Chamberlain.     The  Continents  and  Their  People.     The 
Macmillan  Co.    55  cents  each. 
Africa.    1914. 
Asia.    1913. 
Europe.    1912. 
North  America.    1911. 
South  Ainerica.    1913. 
Oceania  (in  preparation). 
Children's  Hero  Series,  The.     E.  P.  Button  &  Co.     50 
cents  each. 

127 


EEADING  BOOKS  FOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

Golding.     The  Story  of  David  Livingstone.     1906. 
Golding.     The  Story  of  Stanley.     1906. 
Kelman.     Chalmers  of  New  Guinea.     1906. 
Lang.     The  Story  of  Gener^al  Gordon.     1906. 
Paget.    The  Story  of  Bishop  Patteson. 

Children's  Missionary  Series  (thirteen  volumes).  Fleming 
H.  Kevell  Co.    75  cents  each. 
Baird.     Children  of  Asia. 
Brown.     Children  of  China. 
Crowther.     Children  of  Egypt. 
Dwight.     Children  of  Labrador. 
Gomes.     Children  of  Borneo. 
Hodge.     Children  of  South  America. 
Kelman.     Children  of  India. 
Kelman.     Children  of  Japan. 
Maclean.     Children  of  Jamaica. 
Malcolm.     Children  of  Persia. 
Moscrop.     Children  of  Ceylon. 
Pitts.     Children  of  Wild  Australia. 
Young.     Children  of  Arabia. 

Children  of  Other  Lands  Series.    Lothrop,  Lee  &  Shepard 
Co.    75  cents  each. 

Ambrosi.     When  I  was  a  Girl  in  Italy. 
Demetrios.     When  I  was  a  Boy  in  Greece. 
Joncklieere.     When  I  was  a  Boy  in  Belgium. 
Kaleel.     When  I  was  a  Boy  in  Palestine. 
Lee.     When  I  was  a  Boy  in  China. 
Shioya.     When  I  was  a  Boy  in  Japan. 

Collodi.     Pinocchio.    E.  P.  Button  &  Co.    35  and  70  cents. 
Cotes.     The  Story  of  Sonny  Sahib.     1894.    D.  Appleton 

&  Co.     $1.00. 
Crowell.     Coming  Americans.    Woman's  Board  of  Home 

128 


READING  BOOKS  FOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 
20  and  40  cents. 

De  Bhimenthal.  Folh  Tales  from  the  Russian.  1917. 
Rand,  McNally  &  Co.    40  cents. 

Uodge.  Hans  Brinher.  1865.  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
60  cents. 

Eastman.  Indian  Boyhood.  1902.  Doiibleday,  Page  & 
Co.    $1.76. 

Fahs.  Uganda's  White  Man  of  Worh.  1907.  Missionary 
Education  Movement.     60  cents. 

Faris.  The  Alashan  Pathfinder.  1913.  Fleming  H.  Revell 
Co.    $1.00. 

Faris.  Wi7ining  the  Oregon  Country.  1911.  Missionary 
Education  Movement.    60  cents. 

Ferris.  The  Land  of  the  Golden  Man.  1916.  Mission- 
ary Education  Movement.    50  cents. 

Ferris.  Giovanni.  1917.  Missionary  Education  Move- 
ment.   50  cents. 

Grenfell.  Adrift  on  an  Ice  Pan.  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
75  cents. 

Griffis.  The  Unmannerly  Tiger  and  Other  Korean  Tales. 
1911.    Thomas  Y.  Crowell  Co.    50  cents. 

Hall.  Children  at  Play  in  Many  Lands.  1912.  Mission- 
ary Education  Movement.    75  cents. 

Headland.  The  Chinese  Boy  and  Girl.  1901.  Fleming 
H.  Revell  Co.    $1.00. 

Humphreys.  The  Boy's  Catlin.  1909.  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's Sons.    $1.50. 

Huntington.  Asia:  A  Geography  Eeader.  1912.  Rand, 
McNally  &  Co.    75  cents. 

Hutton.  Things  to  Make.  1916.  Missionary  Education 
Movement.    50  cents. 

Judd.     Wigwam  Stories.     1913.     Ginn  &  Co.     75  cents. 

129 


EEADING  BOOKS  FOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

Keith.     The  Blach-hearded  Barbarian.    1912.    Missionary 

Education  Movement.    60  cents. 
Kipling.     The  Jungle  Booh.    The  Century  Co.    $1.50. 
Kipling.     Second  Jungle  Boole.    The  Century  Co.    $1.50. 
Kipling.    Just  So  Stories.   Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.   $1.20. 
Lambert.    Romunce  of  Missionary  Heroism.    1907.    J.  B. 

Lippincott  Co.    $1.50. 
Little  Cousin  Series,  The  (fifty  volumes).    The  Page  Co. 

60  cents  each. 
McDonald    and    Dalrymple.     Little    People    Everywhere 
Series.    Little,  Brown  &  Co.    50  cents  each. 

Manuel  in  Mexico. 

Time  San  in  Japan. 

Rafael  in  Italy. 

Kathleen  in  Ireland. 

Fritz  in  Germany. 

Gerda  in  Sweden. 

Boris  in  Russia. 

Betty  in  Canada. 

Hassan  in  Egypt. 

Maria  in  Holland. 

Donald  in  Scotland. 

Josef  a  in  Spain. 

Colette  in  France. 

Chandra  in  India. 
Little  Schoolmate  Series.    E.  P.  Button  &  Co.    $1.25  each. 

Bayes.    In  Sunny  Spain. 

Colum.     A  Boy  in  Eirinn. 

Dragoumin.     Under  Greek  Shies. 

Green.     The  Laird  of  Glentyre. 

Haskell.    Adventures  of  Katrinha. 

Muller.    Elsheth. 

Porter.     Genevieve. 

130 


READING  BOOKS  FOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

Mackenzie.  African  Adventurers.  The  Central  Com- 
mittee on  the  United  Study  of  Foreign  Missions.  50 
cents. 

Morris.     Home  Life  in  All  Lands  Series.     1909.     J.  B. 
Lippincott  Co.     60  cents  each. 
Book  I.     How  the  World  Lives. 
Book  II.     Manners     and     Customs     of     Uncivilized 

Peoples. 
Book  III.     Animal  Friends  and  Helpers.     1911. 

Nida.  Panama  and  Its  Bridge  of  Water.  1916.  Rand, 
McNally  &  Co.    50  cents. 

Paine.  The  Dragon  and  the  Cross.  1912.  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's  Sons.     $1.00. 

Baton.  The  Story  of  John  G.  Paton.  1892.  George  H. 
Doran  Co.     $1.00. 

Pitman.  Chinese  Fairy  Stories.  1910.  Thomas  Y. 
Crowell  Co.     $1.00. 

Pitman.  A  Chinese  Christmas  Tree.  1914.  Fleming  H. 
Revell  Co.    50  cents. 

Peeps  at  Many  Lands  Series  (fifty-five  volumes).  The 
Macmillan  Co.    55  cents  each. 

Seebach.  Martin  of  Mansfeld.  1916.  Missionary  Educa- 
tion Movement.    60  cents. 

Skinner.  Heart-of -the- Jungle  Tales.  1917.  Missionary 
Education  Movement.    50  cents. 

Stewart.  Tell  Me  a  Hero  Story.  1909.  Fleming  H. 
Revell  Co.    $1.25. 

Van  Bergen.  The  Story  of  China.  1902.  American  Book 
Co.    60  cents. 

Wade.  Pilgrims  of  To-day.  1916.  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
$1.00. 

"Wilson.  Good  Bird,  the  Indian.  1914.  Fleming  H. 
Revell  Co.    40  cents. 

131 


BEADING  BOOKS  FOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

Wilson.     Myths  of  the  Red  Children.     1907.     Ginii  «&  Co. 

45  cents. 
Young.     Algonquin  Indian  Tales.    1903.    Methodist  Book 

Concern.     50  cents. 
Young.    My  Dogs  in  the  North  Land.     1902.     Eleniing 

H.  Revell  Co.    $1.25. 
Zwemer.     Topsy-Turvy  Land.    1902.    Fleming  H.  Eevell 

Co.    75  cents. 
Zwemer.    Zigzag  Journeys  in  the  Camel  Country.    1911. 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.    $1.00. 


132 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(Prices  Subject  to  Change) 

Chapter  I 

Athearn,   Walter   S.     The    Church  School.     1914.     The 

Pilgrim  Press.    $1.00. 
Beard,  Frederica.     Graded  Missionary  Education  in  the 

Church    School.     1917.     Griffith    and    Rowland    Press. 

75  cents. 
Diffendorfer,  R.  E.     Missionary  Education  in  the  Home 

and  School.     1917.    Methodist  Book  Concern.     $1.50. 

Chapter  II 

Baldwin,  Mrs.  M.  J.  The  Juniors:  How  to  Teach  and 
Train  Them.  1916.  The  Westminster  Press,  New 
York.     45  cents. 

Coe,  George  A.  Education  in  Religion  and  Morals.  1904. 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  New  York.    $1.35. 

Dawson,  G.  E.  The  Child  and  His  Religion.  1909.  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago.    75  cents. 

Du  Bois,  Patterson.  The  Point  of  Contact  in  Teaching. 
1907.    Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  New  York.    75  cents. 

Du  Bois,  Patterson.  Bechonings  from  Little  Hands. 
Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  New  York.    75  cents. 

Foster,  E.  A.  The  Boy  and  the  Church.  1909.  The  Sun- 
day School  Times  Co.,  Philadelphia.    75  cents. 

Harrison,    Elizabeth.      Study    of    Child    Nature.      1909. 
Chicago  Kindergarten  College,  Chicago.    $1.00. 
133 


EEADING  BOOKS  FOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

Home,  H.  H.  Psychological  Principles  of  Education. 
1906.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.    $1.75. 

James,  William.  Talks  to  Teachers.  1899.  Henry  Holt 
&  Co.,  New  York.    $1.50. 

Kirkpatrick,  E.  A.  Fundamentals  of  Child  Study.  1907. 
The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.    $1.25. 

Lamoreaux,  Mrs.  A.  A.  The  Unfolding  Life.  1907.  Flem- 
ing H.  Kevell  Co.,  New  York.    75  cents. 

McMurry,  C.  A.  and  F.  M.  The  Method  of  the  Recitation. 
1903.    The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.    90  cents. 

McMurry,  C.  A.  How  to  Study.  1909.  Houghton  Mifflin 
Co.,  Boston.    $1.25. 

Robinson,  E.  M.  The  Junior  Worker  and  His  Work. 
Eaton  &  Mains,  New  York.     50  cents. 

St.  John,  Edward  P.  Charts  of  Adolescence  and  of  Child- 
hood.    The  Pilgrim  Press,  Boston.     Each,  25  cents. 

St.  John,  Edward  P.  Child  Nature  and  Child  Nurture. 
1911.    The  Pilgrim  Press,  Boston.    50  and  75  cents. 

Weigle,  Luther  A.  The  Pupil  and  the  Teacher.  1911. 
George  H.  Doran  Co.,  New  York.    35  and  50  cents. 

Chapter  III 

Hutton,  J.  Gertrude.  Things  to  Make.  1916.  Missionary 
Education  Movement,  New  York.    50  cents. 

Pabst,  Alwin.  Hand-work  Instruction  for  Boys.  (Trans- 
lated from  the  German).  1900.  Manual  Arts  Press, 
Peoria,  HI.     $1.00. 

Wardle,  Addie  G.  Hand-work  in  Religious  Education. 
1916.    University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago.    $1.00. 

MAGAZINES 

Everyland,  a  monthly  magazine  of  world  friendship  and 
134 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Christian  service  for  girls  and  boys.     Everyland,  New 

York.     $1.00  a  year. 
Normal  Instructor,  an  educational  magazine ;  ten  issues  a 

year.     Normal  Instructor,   Dansville,   N.   Y.     $1.50   a 

year. 
School  Arts  Magazine,  an  illustrated  monthly  publication 

for  teachers  interested  in  illustrative  art.     School  Arts 

Publishing  Co.,  Boston.     $2.00  a  year. 
Something  to  Do,  sl  monthly  magazine  for  boys  and  girls. 

Bennett  Publishing  Co.,  New  York.    $1.00  a  year. 
Primary  Education;  ten  issues  a  year.     Primary  Educa- 
tion Publishing  Co.,  New  York.    $2.00  a  year. 

Chapter  IV 

Hutchins,  Norman.  Graded  Social  Service  in  the  Sunday 
School.    1916.    Baker  &  Taylor,  New  York.    75  cents. 

Kollock,  P.  L.  Immigration  Picture  Stories.  Mission- 
ary Education  Movement,  New  York.     30  cents. 

Note — For  "Egg- Shell  Farms,"  see  under  Chapter  III, 
Hutton,  J.  Gertrude. 

Chapter  V 

Ferris,  Anita  B.  Children  of  the  Christmas  Spirit.  1914. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.  25  cents. 
A  Christmas  entertainment  for  boys  and  girls.  Four- 
teen or  more  participants. 
Ferris,  Anita  B.  The  Pageant  of  the  Land  of  the  Golden 
Man.  1916.  Missionary  Education  Movement,  New 
York.    15  cents. 

A  dramatic  exercise  for  boys  and  girls,  based  on  the 
book  The  Land  of  the  Golden  Man.  From  eight  to 
forty  participants. 

135 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ferris,  Anita  B.    Santa's  Allies.    1917.    Missionary  Edu- 
cation Movement,  New  York.    15  cents. 

A  charming  summer-time  play  for  out-door  as  well 
as    indoor    presentation.      Twenty-two    or    more    par- 
ticipants. 
Ferris,  Anita  B.    Visitors  from  the  Colonial  Period.    1916. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.    15  cents. 
A  Washington's  Birthday  entertainment.     Ten  par- 
ticipants. 
Ferris,  Anita  B.     Why  Didn't  You   Tell?     1916.     Mis- 
sionary Education  Movement,  New  York.    15  cents. 

An  Easter  entertainment  for  children  from  five  to  ten 
years  of  age.    Twenty-seven  or  more  participants. 
Prentiss,   Janet.     Jtist  Plain  Peter.     1913.     Missionary 
Education  Movement,  New  York.    25  cents. 

A  dramatic  entertainment  with  suggestions  for  play- 
ing the  games  of  foreign  children.  Ten  or  more  par- 
ticipants, seven  of  whom  take  minor  parts. 
Hall,  Katherine  S.  Children  at  Play  in  Many  Lands. 
1912.  Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York. 
75  cents. 

A  book  describing  the  games  of  children  in  foreign 
lands,  with  a  chapter  on  costumes. 


Chapters  VI  and  VII 

Breed,  David  K.     Hymnology.    1913.    Fleming  H.  Kevell 

Co.,  New  York.    $1.50. 
Brain,  Belle  M.    Holding  the  Ropes.     1904.     Funk  and 

Wagnalls  Company,  New  York.    $1.00. 
Brown,  T.,  and  Butterworth,  H.    The  Story  of  the  Hymns 

and  Tunes.    1906.    American  Tract  Society,  New  York. 

$1.50. 

136 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ferris,  Anita  B.  The  Land  of  the  Golden  Man.  1916. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.  30  and  50 
cents. 

Ferris,  Anita  B.  Missionary  Program  Material.  1916. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.    50  cents. 

Hixson,  Martha  B,  Missions  in  the  Sunday -School.  1906. 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  New  York.    50  cents. 

Sutherland,  Allan.  Famous  Hymns  of  the  World.  1906. 
Frederick  A.  Stokes  Co.,  New  York.    $1.35. 

Trull,  G.  H.  Five  Missionary  Minutes.  1912.  Mission- 
ary Education  Movement,  New  York.     50  cents. 

See  also  magazines  listed  under  Chapter  III. 

Note — For  further  suggestions  regarding  missionary 
educational  material,  write  for  the  general  catalog  of 
publications  and  the  leaflet,  "World  Friendship  for  Girls 
and  Boys,"  which  will  be  sent  free  on  request.  Address, 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New 
York  City. 

Chapter  YIII 

Bryant,  Sara  C.     TIoiu  to  Tell  Stories  to  Children.    1905. 

Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston.    $1.00. 
Houghton,     Louise     S.     Telling    Bihle     Stories.       1908. 

Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.     $1.25. 
St.  John,  Edward  P.     Stories  and  Story -Telling.     1910. 

Pilgrim  Press,  Boston.    60  cents. 
Shedlock,  Marie  L.     The  Art  of  the  Story-Teller.     1916. 

D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York.     $1.75. 


Chapter  IX 

See  list  of  reading  books  at  end  of  Chapter  IX. 
137 


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